Charles Koechlin - Le Docteur Fabricius; Vers la voûte étoilée (Heinz Holliger)

Information

Composer: Charles Koechlin

• Vers la Voûte étoilée, nocturne pour orchestre dédié à la mémoire de Camille Flammarion, Op. 129
• Le Docteur Fabricius, poème symphonique d'après la nouvelle de Charles Dollfus, Op. 202

Christine Simonin, ondes martenot

Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra

Heinz Holliger, conductor

Date: 2003

Label: Hänssler Classic

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

Welcome first recordings of exotic works that look to the stars

Much of Koechlin’s highly individual orchestral music remains unexplored: indeed, both works here are premiere recordings. Before he became a composer, Koechlin wanted to be an astronomer and his fascination with the ‘starry firmament’, and the dream world it evoked, is sensuously created in the arch-like structure of Vers la voûte étoilée (‘Towards the vault of stars’). Written in the early 1920s and revised in 1939, this demonstrates the composer’s exotic sound world in a nocturnal piece that does not outstay its welcome.

The stars in the heavens return in Le Docteur Fabricius, written between 1941 and 1944, a more ambitious, large-scale symphonic poem with a philosophical underlay, based on a short story by the composer’s uncle. In the narrative he describes a visit to the mysterious house in which the nihilistic Doctor Fabricius has cut himself off from the world ‘where nature is indifferent, using humans only to maintain life, and doing nothing to reduce human misfortune’. After an austere opening, dolorous chorales symbolise the philosphical disillusion, interrupted by a strident, fugal revolt and interwoven with moments of sadness.

This leads to a powerfully scored chorale suggesting that human hope always re-emerges. The visitor looks out to the starry firmament (the ondes martenot-rich scoring suggests Messiaen) and then, in a passage of radiant exultation, the spirit of Ravel hovers over the music to evoke the consolation of Nature. After an explosion of joy the music returns to the serene, withdrawn evocation of the opening.Koechlin’s powers as an orchestrator ensure his vision is powerfully communicated. Heinz Holliger is very much at home here, and the Stuttgart Radio orchestra play most responsively. The recording is full and atmospheric if not demonstration-class: one ideally needs a more voluptuous ambience. But this is well worth trying.

-- Ivan March, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/orchestral/koechlin-7

https://www.allmusic.com/album/charles-koechlin-le-docteur-fabricius-vers-la-vo%C3%BBte-%C3%A9toil%C3%A9e-mw0001841430

https://www.amazon.com/Koechlin-Docteur-Fabricius-Vo%C3%BBte-%C3%A9toil%C3%A9e/dp/B0001WGEJ8

-----------------------------------------------------------

Charles Koechlin (27 November 1867 – 31 December 1950) was a French composer, teacher and musicologist. Among his teachers at the Paris Conservatoire were Jules Massenet, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel and Jean Roger-Ducasse. He was a political radical all his life and a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars (especially Lilian Harvey and Ginger Rogers), traveling, stereoscopic photography and socialism. As a composer, Koechlin was enormously prolific, and was highly eclectic in inspiration and technique.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin

***

Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss virtuoso oboist, composer and conductor. He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland and studied at the conservatory of Bern. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Classical pieces, but he has regularly engaged in lesser known pieces of Romantic music, as well as his own compositions. As a composer, Holliger has written many works in a variety of media. Many of his works have been recorded for the ECM label.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Holliger

-----------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!