Arthur Honegger - Orchestral Works (Michel Plasson)

Information

Composer: Arthur Honegger

1. Prélude pour "La Tempête" de Shakespeare
2. Pastorale d'été - Poème symphonique
3. Horace victorieux - Symphonie mimée pour orchestre
4. Pacific 231 - Mouvement symphonique No. 1
5. Rugby - Mouvement symphonique No. 2
6. Mermoz - Suite No. 1 "La Traversée des Andes"
7. Mermoz - Suite No. 2 "Le Vol sur l'Atlantique"

Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse

Michel Plasson, conductor

Date: 1991

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

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Review

This latter work is a ''mimed symphony for orchestra'', in other words a ballet, although its first performance in 1921 was in concert and it was not staged until 1927. The story, set in ancient Rome and first told by Livy, may be an ancestor of Romeo and Juliet; it tells of the opposing Horatii and Curiatii families and features a love interest in the person of Horatius's sister Camilla, whose love for a member of the other family leads to her death at her brother's hands. On first acquaintance, I must confess that this 20-minute score seems to me undistinguished, written in an all-purpose dramatic language and rather crudely scored. I doubt if it will have lasting interest except to specialists. Yet there are better things that are typical of Honegger, such as the gently pastoral flute solo at the seven-minute mark, and the work deserves a place in the catalogue.

This performance is polished and persuasive and indeed, Plasson and his Toulouse orchestra are on strong form throughout the disc, with Pastorale d'ete wonderfully atmospheric. Although inevitably the onomatopoeic element in Pacific 231 makes this musical evocation of a steam locomotive rough-edged, Plasson's performance is musicianly and makes a good case for the work. The same is true of Rugby, which the composer identified as expressing his enthusiasm for the game's disordered and ''distressed … attacks and repulses''—though I think it unlikely that it was sung in the Lions' or All Blacks' changing rooms! La traversee des Andes and Le vol sur l'Atlantique both come from a film called Mermoz (1943): these are related miniature suites of film sequences that are effective, if not very individual.

-- Christopher Headington

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Arthur Honegger (10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who spent most of his life in France. He studied at the Zürich Conservatory and after 1912 at the Paris Conservatory. After World War I he was associated with a group of young composers known as "Les Six". Honegger was a prolific composer and made notable contributions to opera, ballet, orchestral, choral, chamber and film music. His music is written in a bold and uninhibited musical idiom that combines the harmonic innovations of the French avant-garde with the large forms and massed sonorities of the German tradition.

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Michel Plasson (born 2 October 1933) is a French conductor. Born in Paris, he was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris. He also studied briefly in the United States, including time with Charles Munch. Plasson served as the principal conductor of the Orchestre et Chœurs du Capitole de Toulouse for several decades (1968–2003), shaping its sound and repertoire. He is particularly admired for his expertise in French composers such as Massenet, Bizet and Berlioz, as well as for his interpretations of operas. Plasson's recordings were mainly made for EMI/Virgin, and focused upon French composers' works.

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