Vincent d'Indy - Orchestral Works Vol. 6 (Rumon Gamba)

Information

Composer: Vincent d'Indy

• Wallenstein, Op. 12
• Fervaal, opera, Op. 40: Prelude to Act III
• Lied for cello & orchestra, Op. 19
• Suite dans le style ancien in D major, Op. 24
• Sérénade et Valse for orchestra, Op. 28

Bryndís Halla Gylfadóttir, cello

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Rumon Gamba, conductor

Date: 2014

Label: Chandos

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Review

Rumon Gamba’s d’Indy series – this is the final instalment – has done much to illuminate the complexities surrounding one of fin de siècle music’s more controversial figures. D’Indy, like Wagner, was both progressive and reactionary, and our image of the forward-looking teacher – his pupils included Roussel, Albéniz, Varèse and Cole Porter – still squares uneasily with the reality of the right-wing anti-Dreyfusard ideologue, obsessed with ideas of national identity and ethnic superiority. Influential in his lifetime, his music has an eclectic, pivotal feel, overtly synthesising influences in order to explore new possibilities.

The main work here is Wallenstein, completed in 1879, a symphonic trilogy based on Schiller, usually described as a response to The Ring, which d’Indy heard at Bayreuth in 1876. A variant of Wagner’s sword motif characterises the titular hero, a treacherous army officer trapped Wotan-like in schemes of his own devising. Yet the melodic contours suggest the predominant influence of Berlioz; the cyclic form derives from Franck; and a weird chordal sequence depicting the superstitious Wallenstein’s astrological consultations startlingly prefigures the Nietzsche setting in Mahler’s Third Symphony.

Elsewhere, we find comparable links and overtones. The 1897 opera Fervaal is indebted to Parsifal, its Act 3 Prelude pivoting back to Klingsor’s incantations and forward to Pelléas. Suite dans le style ancien is not so much a work of Rococo pastiche as an astringent intimation of 20th-century neo-classicism. The beautiful Lied for cello and orchestra invites comparisons with Massenet, a rival of whom d’Indy was not particularly fond.

Gamba’s conducting evinces the care and thought characteristic of the retrospective as a whole. There’s an admirable awareness of the crafted sensuousness of d’Indy’s textures, the slightly studied novelty of his compositional style. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s brass glare a bit, though the playing is judiciously honed. Cellist Bryndís Halla Gylfadóttir sounds very svelte in the Lied. D’Indy’s reabsorption into the mainstream is a questionable prospect at best. But the series forcefully reminds us of his achievement and importance.

— Tim Ashley

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Vincent d'Indy (27 March 1851 – 2 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher, who sought to reform French music through the influence of César Franck and the Bach-Beethoven-Wagner tradition Germanic. Known for meticulous composition and lyrical expression, he produced important operatic and symphonic works, including Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français and Istar. In 1894, he co-founded the Schola Cantorum in Paris, promoting Gregorian chant and early music studies. D'Indy also collected and arranged folk songs and influenced many composers through his teaching and writings.

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Rumon Gamba (born 24 November 1972) is a British conductor. He studied music at Durham University, and then went to the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1998, he joined the BBC Philharmonic as its Assistant Conductor, and later became Associate Conductor. He left the orchestra in 2002. Gamba was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2002 to 2010, and chief conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra from 2011 to 2015. In January 2022, Gamba became chief conductor of the Oulu Symphony Orchestra. He has made over 50 CDs of for the Chandos Records label.

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