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CH5231 PDF
CH5231 PDF
SYMPHONIES
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Gounod: Symphonies Nos 1 and 2
Gounod and the Symphony awarded the Prix de Rome for his cantata
The performances of Beethoven symphonies Fernand, winning twenty-three out of the
in the 1820s and of Berlioz’s Symphonie twenty-five possible votes. After two years in
fantastique in 1830 did not have the effect of Rome, he should strictly speaking have gone
stimulating French symphonies in general – to study in Germany but, according to one
perhaps they frightened French composers account, managed in 1842 to persuade the
into silence? As late as the 1860s, Édouard authorities that he should remain in Rome, at
Lalo, a contemporary of Charles-François his own expense, to work on a symphony. Like
Gounod (1818 – 1893), was complaining that, every previous winner, he had to submit yearly
if you wrote symphonies, it was somehow compositions (envois) to prove that he was
assumed that you could not write operas, making progress and not wasting too much
and that concert societies were shunning his time admiring the ruins of the Italian capital,
own compositions as not being light-hearted but instead of the symphony, or part of it, and
enough. At the same time, symphonies maybe bearing in mind how symphonies were
by Mendelssohn and Schumann were viewed by the French musical establishment,
acceptable, so probably the problem lay with in 1843 he submitted as his third envoi an
the perception of what French music needed Hymne sacrée. One likely impetus towards
to be: avoiding solemnity and boredom at writing the symphony lay elsewhere. In
all costs – a perception that lasted well into Leipzig in May 1843 he had spent four days
the twentieth century, when a work such from morning till evening with Mendelssohn,
as Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie was who played Bach to him on that composer’s
condemned as bombastic, overblown, and own organ in St Thomas’s Church, and
thoroughly un-French. who, while trying to dissuade him from
The reasons which prompted Gounod to wasting his time on Goethe’s Faust (advice
write his First Symphony are unknown. In luckily ignored), urged him to write another
1839, then rising twenty-one, he had been symphony. We do not know how much of the
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First Symphony Gounod had completed by molto packs a lot of character into a small
then, or had shown to his new friend, but it space: an abrupt introduction with pauses
is not surprising that Mendelssohn figures as (the curtain rises), a first theme balanced on
one of the influences that both works display. simple harmonies (the hero enters), then a
We have to guess over the dates of more lyrical phrase, curling seductively like
composition for both symphonies, for the so many of Gounod’s (his beloved joins the
next we hear of them are performances of hero). After that, offbeat accents and phrases
individual movements in 1855, leading unexpectedly repeated suggest slight tension.
to complete performances of the First on In less than half a minute we find ourselves
4 March that year and of the Second on engrossed in the proceedings, however we
13 February 1856. Both of these were like to interpret them. Structure in the
given by the Société des jeunes artistes, larger sense is also Gounod’s concern, for
conducted by Jules Pasdeloup, a signal favour instance in the return of the introductory
as Pasdeloup, until 1870 anyway, concentrated bars at the end of the exposition – a welcome
on the German classics. He defended his infusion of stability after some slyly executed
performances by beating his chest and saying modulations that are, at least momentarily,
that someone who felt music as deeply as he disturbing.
did must be right, but Saint-Saëns attributed Gérard Condé, a biographer of Gounod,
the conductor’s success to the over-resonant remarks that the move from D major to
acoustics of the Cirque d’Hiver where D minor for the next movement mirrors that
Pasdeloup performed. Even so, he was an from A major to A minor in Beethoven’s
enthusiast and recognised the quality of young Seventh Symphony and wonders whether
Gounod’s music. the composer had in mind Pasdeloup’s
injunction: ‘Write me symphonies like
Symphony No. 1 Beethoven’s and I’ll play them.’ But Condé
Because today we know Gounod primarily also acknowledges this movement’s debt to
as an opera composer, it is tempting to judge the Andante con moto, also in D minor, in
the symphonies according to dramatic Mendelssohn’s ‘Italian’ Symphony (published
principles – tempting, and well justified. The in 1851) and perhaps even more to the
opening bars of the First Symphony’s Allegro ‘Marche de pèlerins’ (Pilgrims’ March)
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in Berlioz’s Harold en Italie (published in development section. But around these the
1848). Entirely his own, though, are the flow of ideas is seamless and it is hard to
extended sequences that would become a decide whether this or the perfect balance
hallmark of his style, and his use of a solo of the movement is the more impressive.
bassoon, an instrument which he praised as The movement ends without Gounod’s
being ‘variously passionate, comical, tender, overegging the pudding, even if the final page
sorrowful; in a word it successfully renders does include a few more chromatic surprises.
every possible feeling’. The third movement The seventeen-year-old Bizet, charged with
is headed ‘Scherzo’, but its true character is making a piano reduction of the work, took it
found at the end in the indication ‘Da Capo as a model for his own Symphony in C.
il minuetto’. Here Gounod’s admiration
for Haydn is manifest, not only in the Symphony No. 2
gracefulness of the melodic line but in the A reviewer of the first performance of
delightful surprise of the ‘wrong’ key that Symphony No. 1, addressing Gounod, felt
begins the second half of the minuet. The Trio ‘circulating through your rush of ideas an
looks back earlier in the eighteenth century impulse that calls for a larger scene. And why
in being based on a drone, like the pastoral not, one day?’ Although this was to ignore
musettes that were then popular; Gounod’s the fact that Gounod had already had two
scoring of the tune for oboe and bassoon also operas performed in Paris, both the critic and
conforms to that genre. Pasdeloup must have been pleased with the
A slow introduction to the Finale provides appearance of the Second Symphony a year
a brief change of tempo. In the Finale itself later. The introductory Adagio in the key of
Gounod again revels in Haydnesque high E flat speaks of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ and there
spirits, and short fanfares on trumpets bear are now more passages that remain on the
out his belief that ‘a single trumpet note, same chord for longer, with variety supplied by
even pianissimo, casts an extraordinary shaft rhythm and orchestration. The development
of light over the whole orchestra’. Amid again begins with the unexpected and in
all the bustle, sudden halts on surprise dramatic vein (upstage, the villain enters
chords testify to the composer’s dramatic unseen), but Gounod sticks to the rules of
instincts, especially the one that begins the sonata form. The final bars are pure Beethoven.
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The Larghetto is the heart of the work. Beethoven. But against this, one must note
If its opening bars look forward to Faust that when Mme Gounod wanted to go to that
(1859), the general tenor is rather that performance, she took Saint-Saëns’s mother
of the more lyrical moments in Roméo et with her to ease the strain: yet it was
Juliette (1867). The chorale-like first theme Mme Saint-Saëns who, after the final notes,
is undoubtedly a tribute to Mendelssohn’s ‘fainted at the tumult, shouts, and whistles
Bachian enthusiasm and acts as a marvellous from the audience’. Truly the path of the
foil to the delicately pirouetting dotted Parisian symphonist was a prickly one.
notes that follow. The form is a simple ABA,
© 2019 Roger Nichols
but in the final section not only are the two
ideas combined, but extra motifs are added,
often in Gounod’s favourite bassoon, which Having given its first concert in 1950, the
also delights in a brief pirouetting solo. This Iceland Symphony Orchestra has since
time the Scherzo really is a scherzo, and expanded from a part-time ensemble of
very much in the Beethovenian manner, the forty players to an internationally renowned
creeping chromatics on the strings answered orchestra of eighty-five full-time musicians.
casually by the woodwind, as if to say, ‘You As Iceland’s national orchestra, resident at
can’t scare us’. Then, as in the Larghetto, Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík and funded
the two ideas are combined and the mood in large part by the Icelandic state and the city
of the movement becomes enigmatic, until of Reykjavík, it gives around sixty concerts
balm is applied by the Trio, copying the each season, its repertoire ranging from
musette pattern of the First Symphony. The traditional classical works to contemporary
Finale remembers from time to time that the and film music. It has worked with such
symphony began in Beethovenian seriousness, renowned musicians as Daniel Barenboim,
but superficial jollity keeps breaking out Anne-Sophie Mutter, Joshua Bell, Hilary
until the final pages when order is restored – Hahn, Jonas Kaufmann, Isabelle Faust,
though the last few bars, as often in the case and Evelyn Glennie. Currently Conductor
of Gounod, are decidedly quirky. A reviewer Laureate, Vladimir Ashkenazy has conducted
of the first performance congratulated the the Orchestra regularly since the early 1970s.
composer on not wanting to go further than Rumon Gamba was its Chief Conductor and
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Music Director from 2002 to 2010, succeeded violin at the Paris Conservatoire at fourteen
by Ilan Volkov and then, in September and making his debut as soloist, with the
2016, by Yan Pascal Tortelier. Osmo Vänska London Philharmonic Orchestra, shortly
is Conductor Laureate, having worked afterwards. Following general musical studies
closely with the Orchestra since his tenure with Nadia Boulanger, he studied conducting
as Chief Conductor in the 1990s, and the with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia
highly acclaimed Icelandic composer Anna Musicale Chigiana in Siena. Chief Conductor
Þorvaldsdóttir is Composer-in-Residence. of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since
The Orchestra’s wide-ranging international 2016, he has been Principal Conductor and
discography includes highly praised cycles Artistic Director of the Ulster Orchestra
of the symphonies of Sibelius and orchestral (1989 – 92), Principal Guest Conductor
works by Jón Leifs. The first volume in the of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
series devoted to orchestral works by Vincent (2005 – 08), and Principal Conductor of the
d’Indy with Rumon Gamba was nominated São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (2009 – 11).
for a Grammy award in 2008, and the He is currently Conductor Emeritus of the
second volume was an Editor’s Choice in BBC Philharmonic, having served as its
Gramophone. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra Chief Conductor from 1992 to 2003. He
has appeared widely throughout Europe, giving has conducted major orchestras such as the
performances at the BBC Proms and Wiener London Symphony Orchestra, London
Musikverein, among others, and in 2018, with Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de
Ashkenazy, embarked on a highly successful Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,
three-week tour of Japan. It has also appeared St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra,
twice in Carnegie Hall, New York. Writing Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia
in The New York Times, the critic Alex Ross Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic,
described its performance under Osmo Vänskä Minnesota Orchestra, and the Boston and
as ‘sensational... one of the finest Sibelius Chicago symphony orchestras. His long
performances I have encountered’. association with Chandos Records has resulted
in an extensive catalogue of recordings, notably
Yan Pascal Tortelier began his musical with the BBC Philharmonic and Ulster
career as a violinist, winning first prize for Orchestra, which includes award-winning
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cycles of the orchestral music of Debussy, recordings of Ravel’s Piano Concertos with the
Ravel, Franck, Roussel, and Dutilleux. BBC Symphony Orchestra and Stravinsky’s
Most recently, with the pianist Jean-Efflam Pétrouchka and other works with the São Paulo
Bavouzet, Yan Pascal Tortelier has released Symphony Orchestra.
Ari Magg
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Yan Pascal Tortelier
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Ari Magg
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Gounod: Symphonies nos 1 et 2
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Microphones
Thuresson: CM 402 (main sound)
Schoeps: MK22 / MK4 / MK6
DPA: 4006 & 4011
Neumann: U89
CM 402 microphones are hand built by the designer, Jörgen Thuresson, in Sweden.
CHANDOS
CHANDOS
Charles-Fr ançois
Gounod (1818 – 1893)
CHSA 5231
p 2019 Chandos Records Ltd c 2019 Chandos Records Ltd Chandos Records Ltd • Colchester • Essex • England