Edgard Varèse - Arcana; Octandre; Offrandes; Intégrales; Déserts

Christopher Lyndon-Gee (dir.)
Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Maryse Castets, soprano (Tracks 5-6)

Naxos 8.554820

Eac / Ape (img+cue+log) / Mp3 (lame vbr --alt preset)
Total playing time: 71:15
Covers & booklet included (scan @ 300dpi)

Recording:
Recorded from 25th - 29th April (Tracks 1-6) and 13th - 14th May (Tracks 7-14), 2000
Grzegorz Fitelberg Concert Hall, Katowice

Info:
The fact that the French-born American composer Edgard Varèse is deemed to be one of the most innovative and influential composers of the twentieth century is all the more remarkable when one considers that his œuvre consists of just a dozen works, the majority of which were written between 1920 and 1936. Yet his novel developments in the field of rhythm, form and timbre, his works often featuring richly coloured ensembles of wind and percussion, acted as a significant model for composers as diverse as Stockhausen, Xenakis and Birtwistle. The composer himself merely remarked that ‘Contrary to general belief an artist is never ahead of his time but most people are far behind theirs’.

Track listing:
1. Arcana
2. Octandre 1. Assez lent
3. Octandre 2. Tres vif et nerveaux
4. Octandre 3. Grave
5. Offrandes for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra 1. Chanson de La-haut
6. Offrandes for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra 2. La Croix du Sud
7. Integrales
8. Deserts 1.
9. Deserts 2. First Electronic Interpolation (beginning)
10. Deserts 3. First Electronic Interpolation (conclusion)
11. Deserts 4. Second Electronic Interpolation (beginning)
12. Deserts 5. Second Electronic Interpolation (conclusion)
13. Deserts 6. Third Electronic Interpolation (beginning)
14. Deserts 7. Third Electronic Interpolation (conclusion)

Reviews:
ClassicsToday:
Play this recording of Arcana next to the recent Boulez/Chicago on DG, and you're in for a big surprise. No, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra isn't Chicago, and Naxos has paid for a recording of great immediacy and clarity of texture by accepting a very dry, attenuated bass. But musically, Christopher Lyndon-Gee blows Boulez away. His Arcana is only about a minute faster, but sounds about ten times more exciting, more dynamic, more rhythmically emphatic, more committed. Here is a conductor who understands what the composer means when he writes a triple forte, and he charts an unerring course from the pounding opening right through the mysterious closing bars.

The other works offer still more evidence of extraordinarily communicative musicianship. Tangy wind sonorities give a playful edge to Octandre's acerbic central movement, and a vocal, human warmth to its outer ones. Déserts, unlike the Boulez version, includes its taped interpolations and explores a stunning sonic landscape in which Lyndon-Gee's contributions sustain the work's atmosphere far more impressively. Intégrales reveals greater sensitivity to dynamic gradation than Boulez permits his Chicago players, and Offrandes' mysterious, sensual landscapes still mesmerize despite the dryness of the sound and the close-up focus on the otherwise fine soprano, Maryse Castets. In short, this wholly unexpected surprise of a disc will delight Varèse fans. You won't find Chailly's level of polish and sophistication, but Lyndon-Gee's interpretations offer a wholly winning freshness of their own. Now dare we hope for Amériques from these same forces?


Graham Dwyer, The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo):
On this disc is a selection of the composer's works from his heyday, the 1920s, including such orchestral pieces as the substantial Arcana, three miniature movements of Octandre, the Offrandes for soprano and chamber orchestra, and Integrales. The CD rounds off with Deserts, composed in the 1950s after a long compositional silence and juxtaposing two-track tape with chamber music.

The two lyrical soprano movements of Offrandes (assuredly sung by France's Maryse Castets) are the most approachable works here, while most of the others reflect the musical crisis and search for a new artistic direction that faced the majority of composers in the first three decades of the 20th century.

Apart from a brief snatch of jazz in Integrales, this music is a mass of restless motifs, textures and rhythms set to a strident kaleidoscope of dissonance and timbre. Oddly attractive, though, are the tape movements in the Deserts, offering the kind of shadowy sounds that can be found in the likes of Tan Dun today. There are not many avant-garde composers that do not owe at least a little to this neglected and highly experimental composer. All credit to Naxos and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (under Britain's Christopher Lyndon-Gee) for giving us a chance to hear the works of a 20th-century original.

Gramophone:



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