Honegger: Symphony No. 3, 'liturgique' / Pacific 231 / Rugby

Description

Arthur HONEGGER (1892-1955) Orchestral WorksBorn in Le Havre on 10th March, 1892, Arthur Honegger was ofSwiss-French parentage, an ancestry in many ways determining the nature of hismusic, far removed from the self-conscious gaiety and whimsicality frequentlyevoked by the other members of the Paris-based group Les Six. Studies at theParis Conservatoire during 1911-18 instilled in him a love of counterpoint andfugal procedure, evident throughout his work, while a lifelong appreciation ofthe possibilities of technology is evinced in his extensive output for film andradio, not least Abel Gance's 1927 epic film Napoleon (Marco Polo 8.223134). Despite the fact that his international career was launchedin 1921 by the dramatic psalm Le roi David (Naxos 8.553649), and that operasand ballets occupied the major part of his creative thinking between the wars,Honegger is now best remembered for a sequence of vivid and increasinglydramatic orchestral works. During the 1920s and 1930s, these took the form ofshort tone poems and mood pictures, often with a specific evocation in mind.Latterly, the composer preferred more abstract titles, composing his FirstSymphony in 1930 and three further symphonies during the 1940s. Dating from1951, the Fifth Symphony is among his last major works, a defiant statement bya composer who, undermined by serious ill health from 1947, was increasinglyuncertain about the artist's r??le in a world haunted by the threat of its owndestruction. He died in the Paris district of Montmatre, where he had livedsince 1913, on 27th November 1955. A tone poem depicting summer in the Alps above Berne,Pastoral d'ete, prefaced by a quotation from Rimbaud, J'ai embrasse l'aubed'ete (I embraced the dawn of summer), was a notable success at its premi?¿re in1920, and has remained one of Honegger's most performed pieces. Calmlyundulating strings provide the backdrop for a ruminative horn melody, continuedby oboe and complemented by graceful clarinet arabesques. Violins take up thetheme, leading in a gradual crescendo to the central section of the piece, alivelier, folk-like theme shared between woodwind. Strings add their animatedcontribution, resulting in an overlay of 'folk' themes at the central climax.This quickly subsides, and the initial melody and rhythm return, albeit with reminiscencesof the central section. A version of the 'folk' theme, sounding ethereal onflute, brings the piece to a gentle close.Few pieces caught the mood of the time, and the imaginationof musicians and public alike, as did Pacific 231 (1923), Honegger's graphicmusical depiction of a train in motion, in which he expresses acceleration bydecreasing note values, while actually slowing the tempo. The trajectory of thework is very simple. After a ghostly initial inhaling and exhaling on upperstrings and woodwind, the rhythmic momentum gets under way in earnest. As thepulse-rate gradually increases, so does the stridency of the orchestration,with numerous rhythmically-defined g