Frank Martin - In terra pax; The Four Elements (Matthias Bamert)

Information

Composer: Frank Martin

• Les quatres éléments (The Four Elements)
• In terra pax

Judith Howarth, soprano

Della Jones, contralto

Martyn Hill, tenor

Roderick Williams, baritone

Stephen Roberts, bass

Brighton Festival Chorus

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Matthias Bamert, conductor

Date: 1996

Label: Chandos

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Review

The musical portraits of The Four Elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) are delineated by Martin as a sallow drama played in dark or darkening pastels. The composer's sobriety sets the bounds for his imaginative approach. There is none of the uproar and delirium to be found in Holst's music for the Elements in his opera The Perfect Fool. Even so the aquamarine seas and dark inky swirl are well put across pretypifying (by only one year and presumably quite innocently) the early pages of Nystroem's Sinfonia del Mare. The work has been recorded before by the Concertgebouw with Bernard Haitink on Preludio PRL2147.

In Terra Pax was the work that first drew me towards Martin. This was in the Ansermet/Decca version. It recreates apocalyptic visions of peace achieved through loss and suffering as well as visions of ignorant armies clashing by night. Bamert's quartet of singers is generally strong, and render the original French idiomatically. In a 'head to head' I would still prefer the Ansermet for the emotional cauldron it stirs. In Terra Pax was written to mark the looming end of the Second World War. Martin commented on how he rushed to complete the work seemingly racing the Allied advance. The Chandos voices are presented across the soundstage in a well contrived spread. While there are some pages of, what I will call Martin's, Protestant recitative (usually given to solo singers) there is some truly luminous writing for the massed choral forces. This is evocative of the Great Carillon of Christmas; indeed bell effects run through this work. If you do not know the piece think in terms (if you know it - as yet no commercial recording) of Peter Racine Fricker's A Vision of Judgement and Franz Schmidt's Book of the Seven Seals.

Second only to the Ballades disc this remains a strong contender in the Martin-Chandos stakes.

— Rob Barnett

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Frank Martin (15 September 1890 – 21 November 1974) was a Swiss composer. Born in Geneva, he studied under Joseph Lauber and Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. He served as president of the Swiss Musicians' Union (1943–1946) before moving to the Netherlands. A performer as well as a composer, Martin toured widely as a pianist and harpsichordist. His compositions blended German influences, especially Bach, with French harmonic innovations. Notable works include the oratorios Le Vin herbé and Golgotha, the opera Der Sturm, and a Requiem, along with numerous concertos, orchestral and chamber works.

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Matthias Bamert (born July 5, 1942) is a Swiss conductor and composer. He studied music in his native Switzerland, as well as in Darmstadt and Paris, with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Bamert's conducting career began in North America as an apprentice to George Szell and later as assistant conductor to Leopold Stokowski. He has served as music director of the Swiss Radio Orchestra from (1977–83), London Mozart Players (1993–2000), Western Australian Symphony (2003–07), Malaysian Philharmonic (2005–08), and the Sapporo Symphony (2018–2024). Bamert has made over 60 recordings.

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