Honegger CD booklet LPO-0058

HONEGGER

Pastorale d’été Symphony No. 4 UNE Cantate de noËl

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor CHRISTOPHER MALTMAN baritone LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and CHOIR NEW LONDON CHILDREN’S CHOIR

HONEGGER Pastorale d’été (SUMMER PASTORAL) Today the Swiss-born composer Arthur Honegger is often remembered as a member of ‘Les Six’ – that embodiment of 1920s Parisian modernist chic in music. How unjust.

It is true that for a while Honegger shared some of the views of true ‘Sixists’ like Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud, particularly when they were students together at the Paris Conservatoire. But even from the start he could not share his friends’ enthusiasm for the eccentric prophet of minimalism and Dadaism, Eric Satie, and he grew increasingly irritated with the group’s self-appointed literary apologist, Jean Cocteau. It was soon clear that, despite the dissonant, metallic futurism of works like Pacific 231 (1923), Honegger had more respect for traditional forms and for romantic expression than his friends could accept. Poulenc and Milhaud both dismissed Honegger’s magnificent ‘dramatic psalm’ Le Roi David (‘King David’, 1923) as over-conventional.

Pastorale d’été (‘Summer Pastoral’, 1920), is a far gentler work than any of those, yet its warmly expressive melodic lines – without a trace of the ironic distortion delighted in by the young Milhaud and Poulenc – show immediately that Honegger is set on his own path. The relaxed, slightly bluesy repeated figure that establishes the initial dreamy pace suggests the influence of jazz, but the hints

of birdsong on woodwind place Honegger more amongst the 19th-century French landscape painters than les enfants terribles.

From this, Pastorale d’été builds to a rapturous climax then returns – via a middle section that sometimes echoes the pastoral Vaughan Williams – to the lazy, summery motion of the opening.

Stephen Johnson

SYMPHONY NO. 4 By the time Honegger came to write his Fourth Symphony in 1946, he was barely recognizable as the former fellow traveller of the wilfully provocative Les Six. He had moved away from any desire to shock or scandalize audiences: instead, like Mozart, he strove ‘to write music which would be comprehensible to the great mass of listeners and at the same time sufficiently free of banality to interest genuine music lovers’. This can be seen particularly in the cycle of five symphonies Honegger wrote between 1930 and 1951. The Third (Liturgique) and the Fifth (Di tre re) in particular carry a powerful emotional narrative, coupled with an almost cinematic immediacy, that at times make one think of Mahler – a composer

whose intense personal-dramatic style, heavily charged with late romantic pathos, was the very thing Milhaud, Poulenc and Cocteau had set their face against most fixedly.

The Fourth Symphony, however, is intentionally a less serious offering, and as its subtitle Deliciae Basilienses – ‘The delights of Basel’ – suggests, it is meant to entertain and beguile the ear rather than to explore darker or more melancholic emotions. Honegger was responding to a commission from the influential conductor Paul Sacher, director of the Basel Chamber Orchestra, and, as the title indicates, he intended to pay homage to the orchestra’s home city and its cultural life in the music. But there was a more serious purpose too, as Honegger recalled: ‘In the year of misfortune, 1946, we were living in a scarcely jubilant era. The governments of the countries demanded that their subjects pay for the consequences of the war. In the midst of this odious and stupid existence which was imposed on us, this symphony brings hope, created by the prospect of temporarily escaping from this atmosphere, in my spending the summer in Switzerland [at Sacher’s home in Schönenberg], surrounded

by the affection of dear friends for whom the art of music still has importance.’

Honegger wove specific tributes to Basel into the texture of the Fourth Symphony.

The central Larghetto, for instance, is based on a Swiss dialect folk song, ‘Z’ Basel a mim Rhy’ (approximately, ‘In Basel, on my beloved Rhine’). Easier for the outsider to identify is the use of the medieval melody ‘Basler Morgenstreich’ – ‘Basel morning prank’ or ‘fun’, which emerges jauntily on high woodwind and glockenspiel at the finale’s final climax.

But what is much more striking is the element of new-found magic and sensuous richness in this work, achieved with an equally new level of sophistication. Honegger himself acknowledged this, somewhat primly, when he wrote that the symphony ‘marks a definite progress in craftsmanship, and contrasts well with what had gone before’. Like Messiaen in his Turangalîla Symphony (also begun in 1946), Honegger here offers his audience compensation for the prevailing drabness and deprivation of life in post-war Europe.

The memory of such straightened times may be faint today, but over half a century on this music can still cause ‘delight’.

Stephen Johnson

UNE Cantate de noël (A CHRISTMAS CANTATA) Honegger’s last major work was the modestly titled Une Cantate de Noël (‘A Christmas Cantata’), composed in 1952–53 for the Basel Chamber Choir and its founder and conductor Paul Sacher. Suffering already from his last illness, Honegger adapted the work from music that he had written early in the Second World War for an abandoned project, a day-long Passion Play in the Swiss village of Selzach.

The Cantata, first performed in Basel a week before Christmas 1953, is scored for solo baritone, mixed choir, children’s choir, organ and orchestra, and sets a multilingual text. It traces a progression from dark despair to hope and joyful affirmation, before a final leave-taking.

After a slow introduction led by the organ, the chorus enters over an ostinato bass, first wordlessly and then to Latin words from Psalm 130, the De profundis. While the chorus continues in wordless octaves at the same tempo, the orchestra takes off at double speed in an angry march. A choral cry of ‘O come’ is expanded into a chordal setting in French of the hymn ‘O come, o come, Emmanuel!’ (divorced from its traditional melody), with the reassuring refrain sung by the children’s choir.

The organ takes over, with trumpet fanfares, to accompany the baritone soloist singing, also in French, the angel’s proclamation to the shepherds of the birth of Christ. This is greeted by a quodlibet, or medley, of carols from different countries, in their original languages.

The German ‘Es ist ein Reis entsprungen’, sung by the children, is interleaved with the French ‘Il est né le divin enfant’, and counterpointed by an exuberant Gloria. The German ‘Vom Himmel hoch, ihr Engelein, kommt!’ takes over; then ‘Il est né’ and ‘Vom Himmel hoch’ are smoothly combined with the German ‘O du fröhliche’ and the familiar Austrian ‘Stille Nacht’.

The baritone re-enters with the angel’s Latin Gloria, interleaved with a solo treble singing the start of Psalm 117, the Laudate Dominum, to its traditional plainchant melody – the source of the Lutheran Advent chorale ‘Wachet auf’, or ‘Sleepers, wake’. The whole Psalm of praise and rejoicing is then set in rhythmic triple time, with the children’s choir and trumpets adding the plainchant melody as a Bachian descant, and a powerful concluding ‘Amen’. The orchestra follows this with another ingenious quodlibet of carol melodies, which eventually breaks up into fragments before the organ brings the work to a quiet close.

Anthony Burton

HONEGGER UNE Cantate de noël

Chorus 05 Ah ...

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine; Domine, exaudi vocem meam.

Ah ...

O viens!

O viens, o viens Emmanuel!

En toi vit l’espoir d’Israel.

Nos lourdes fautes nous pleurons, entends nos voix qui t’implorons.

Ah ...

Out of the depths I have cried to thee, Lord; Lord, hear my voice.

Ah ...

O come!

O come, o come Emmanuel!

The hopes of Israel reside in you.

We bewail our grievous faults, hear our voices that implore you.

Children’s chorus Freu’ Dich, freu’ Dich, o Israel!

Bald kommt, bald kommt Emmanuel.

Rejoice, rejoice, o Israel!

Soon shall come Emmanuel!

Chorus O viens, parais lumière du jour qui dois nous apporter ton secours.

Nous errons tous sans but ni fin, O désigne nous le clair chemin.

O come, we await the dawn that will bring us your aid.

We are all aimless wanderers, O show us the straight path.

Children’s chorus Freu’ Dich, freu’ Dich, o Israel!

Gekommen ist Emmanuel.

Rejoice, rejoice, o Israel!

Emmanuel is come.

Baritone 06 Ne craignez point, car je vous transmets une bonne nouvelle qui apportera une grande joie: Le Messie est venu sur la terre,

Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy: The Messiah has come down to earth,

dans une étable à Bethléem, vous trouverez couché dans une crèche l’enfant-Jésus.

Children’s chorus Es ist ein Reis entsprungen aus einer Wurzel zart ...

Chorus (sopranos and tenors) Gloria in excelsis Deo ...

Chorus (mezzo sopranos and basses) Il est né le divin enfant, jouez hautbois, résonnez musettes ...

Children’s chorus Wie uns die Alten sungen, aus Jesse kam die Art Mitten im kalten Winter wohl zu der halben Nacht.

Das Reis, das ich da meine, davon Jesaia sagt.

Maria ist’s, die Reine, die uns das Blümlein bracht.

Hat sie ein Kind geboren und blieb doch reine Magd.

Chorus (sopranos and tenors) Gloria in excelsis Deo ...

Chorus (mezzo sopranos and basses) Il est né, le divin enfant!

Chantons tous son avènement,

in a stable at Bethlehem, you will find the Infant Jesus lying in a manger.

A shoot has sprung forth from a tender root ...

Glory to God in the highest ...

The divine infant is born, play oboes, sound out pipes ...

As our elders sang to us, from the race of Jesse In the midst of the cold winter and halfway through the night.

The shoot I speak of was foretold by Isaiah.

It is Mary the pure who brought us the little flower.

She bore a child yet remained a pure maiden.

Glory to God in the highest ...

The divine infant is born, let us sing of his coming,

le ciel l’a annoncé.

Voici finir la nuit.

heaven announced it, the night is ended.

Chorus Vom Himmel hoch, ihr Engelein, kommt!

Eia, eia, Susani, susani!

Kommt singt und klingt, kommt pfeift und trombt, Alleluia, alleluia!

Von Jesu singt und Maria.

Come, you angels, from heaven on high!

Eia, eia, Hosanna, hosanna!

Come sing, resound, come play on pipes and trumpets, Alleluia, alleluia!

Sing of Jesus and of Mary.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!

Alles schläft, einsam wacht, Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.

Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar.

Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh. Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!

Hirten erst kundgemacht durch der Engel; Halleluia tönt es laut von fern und nah, Christ, der Retter ist da.

Silent night! Holy night!

Everyone sleeps, only the dear most holy couple is awake.

Blessed curly-haired infant sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night! Holy night!

The shepherds first heard the news from the angels; Halleluia echoes loudly from near and far, Christ the Saviour is born.

Baritone Gloria in excelsis Deo ...

Glory to God in the highest ...

Solo treble Laudate Dominum omnes gentes ...

Praise the Lord all ye nations ...

Baritone Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax, pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Chorus 07 Laudate Dominum omnes gentes, laudate eum omnes populi, quoniam confirmata est super nos misericordia ejus et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper et in saecula saeculorum.

Amen.

Children’s chorus Laudate Dominum omnes gentes, laudate eum omnes populi, Amen.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to all men.

Praise the Lord all ye nations, praise him, all ye people, for his merciful kindness is great towards us; and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be for ever and ever.

Amen.

Praise the Lord all ye nations, praise him, all ye people, Amen.

Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow, but in 1990 moved with his family to Germany, where he completed his musical studies at the High Schools of Music in Dresden and in Berlin. His 1995 debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night launched his international career, and he works with the world’s leading orchestras and opera houses including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago Symphony orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Staatskapelle Dresden, as well as the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Opéra Bastille de Paris; La Scala, Milan; and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.

In January 2001 Vladimir Jurowski took up the position of Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He also holds the title of Principal Artist with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and from 2005 to 2009 served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra. In September 2007 he became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s twelfth Principal Conductor.

CHRISTOPHER MALTMAN baritone

© Pia Clodi

© Karen Robinson

Vladimir jurowski conductor

Winner of the Lieder Prize at the 1997 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Christopher Maltman studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music.

His operatic appearances include Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, and in Cologne; Papageno, Guglielmo, Marcello, Ramiro and Forester at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Il Conte at the Opéra National de Paris and in Vienna; Tarquinius, Guglielmo, Marcello and Albert at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; and Papageno and Silvio at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. An acclaimed Billy Budd, he has sung the role at Welsh National Opera, Teatro Regio in Turin, Seattle, Frankfurt and Munich. A renowned recitalist and concert performer, he has appeared with major orchestras across Europe and the USA. His discography includes the three Schubert song cycles with Graham Johnson for Wigmore Live, Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Liederkreis, and songs by Warlock, Holst, Somervell, Debussy and Fauré.

London Philharmonic CHOIR

NEW LONDON CHILDREN’s CHOIR

Artistic Director: Neville Creed

Musical Director: Ronald Corp

The London Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1947 as the chorus for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest choirs and consistently meets with critical acclaim. Performing regularly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Choir also works with many other orchestras throughout the United Kingdom and makes annual appearances at the BBC Proms. It has performed under some of the world’s most eminent conductors – among them Pierre Boulez, Sir Mark Elder, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Jurowski, Kurt Masur, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Simon Rattle, Klaus Tennstedt and Sir Georg Solti.

The New London Children’s Choir offers a unique opportunity for girls and boys aged between 7 and 18 to learn to sing and enjoy all kinds of music. Launched by Ronald Corp in 1991, the Choir has appeared in all the major London concert halls with the UK’s finest symphony orchestras and conductors, has collaborated with opera companies in the UK and abroad, and has made dozens of recordings and broadcasts. Recent discs have included Pigs could fly (a collection of British music), Jonah-Man Jazz and other cantatas by Michael Hurd, and the children’s opera The Ice Mountain by Ronald Corp.

The London Philharmonic Choir has made numerous recordings for CD, radio and television. The Choir often travels overseas and in recent years it has given concerts in many European countries, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia.

The Choir has a special commitment to commissioning and has premièred over 40 new works by composers including Diana Burrell, Simon Bainbridge, Howard Skempton, Philip Cashian, Patrick Nunn, Richard Causton, Gary Carpenter and Morgan Hayes. It has also taken part in premières including works by Sally Beamish, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Louis Andriessen (all BBC Proms), George Benjamin and Gerald Barry as well as concerts with Nico Muhly, Sir Paul McCartney, Lou Reed, Hayley Westenra and These New Puritans. The Choir has travelled to festivals around the world including New York and the Azores.

London Philharmonic orchestra May each year. In summer, the Orchestra moves to Sussex where it has been Resident at Glyndebourne Festival Opera for over 40 years.

The Orchestra also performs at venues around the UK and has made numerous tours to America, Europe and Japan, and visited India, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Australia, South Africa and Abu Dhabi.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance. It has recorded and broadcast regularly ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label.

These recordings are taken mainly from live concerts given by conductors including LPO Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti and Tennstedt, to Masur and Jurowski. lpo.org.uk

© Patrick Harrison

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s great orchestras with a reputation secured by its performances in the concert hall and opera house, its many award-winning recordings, its trail-blazing international tours and its pioneering education work. Distinguished conductors who have held positions with the Orchestra since its foundation in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham include Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Pritchard, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt, Franz Welser-Möst and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski was appointed the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor in March 2003 and became Principal Conductor in September 2007. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been resident symphony orchestra at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall since 1992 and there it presents its main series of concerts between September and

ARTHUR HONEGGER (1892–1955) 01

7:23

Pastorale d’été (Summer Pastoral)

24:19 Symphony No. 4 (‘Deliciae Basilienses’)

02 03 04

10:54 Lento e misterioso – Allegro 5:35 Larghetto 7:50 Allegro

21:57

05 8:43 06 7:02 07 6:12

Une Cantate de Noël (A Christmas Cantata) De profundis clamavi Ne craignez point Laudate Dominum omnes gentes

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor

CHRISTOPHER MALTMAN baritone

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and CHOIR

NEW LONDON CHILDREN’S CHOIR

Boris Garlitsky leader (tracks 1–4)

Vesselin Gellev leader (tracks 5–7)

Neville Creed chorus master, London Philharmonic Choir

Ronald Corp chorus master, New London Children’s Choir

Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL and

QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL, London

LPO – 0058