Arthur Honegger - Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5; Pacific 231 (Neeme Järvi)

Information

Composer: Arthur Honegger

• Symphony No. 5 in D major "Di Tre Re", H202
• Symphony No. 3 "Liturgique", H186
• Pacific 231 (Mouvement symphonique No. 1), H53

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Neeme Järvi, conductor

Date: 1992

Label: Chandos

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Review

Though seldom encountered in the concert-hall, the Honegger symphonies are decently represented on CD. There are complete cycles by Dutoit (Erato), Plasson (EMI), Baudo (Supraphon) and numerous individual symphonies, most notably Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic coupling of Nos. 2 and 3. When I first heard the Fifth in the early 1950s I was immediately struck by the resemblance of the opening bars (with their triads in contrary motion) to Milhaud's Moses and have long wondered whether it was a deliberate tribute or merely fortuitous. Not even Harry Halbreich's important new study (Fayard: 1992) resolves it. Be that as it may, the Fifth remains one of Honegger's most individual scores, and this new recording from Neeme Jarvi and the Danish Radio orchestra serves it well. Unlike Charles Dutoit and the Bavarian Radio orchestra, there is nothing restrained here and even if the finale does not quite match the sheer exhilaration and gusto of Serge Baudo's wonderful Supraphon account from the early 1960s (which now sounds far more full bodied in its new transfer), the Jarvi is not far behind: moreover it is very well recorded. So, too, is the rest of the programme and although the playing of the Danish orchestra for Jarvi in the Symphonie Liturgique does not outshine that of the Berlin Philharmonic for Karajan this is a thoroughly convincing and to my ears compelling account. The Pacific 231 also thunders mightily along the track though not quite as speedily as it did for Honegger himself (now available on Pearl). Recommended.'

-- Robert Layton

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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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Neeme Järvi (born June 7, 1937 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under Evgeny Mravinsky and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others. Järvi was Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony (1982-2004), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1984-1988), Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1990-2005) and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2012-2015), among others. He made over 400 recordings for labels such as BIS, Chandos and Deutsche Grammophon and best known for his interpretations of Romantic and 20th century classical music.

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