https://archive.org/details/GrandeMesseDesMorts
pcast096- Playlist
===================================================================== English Commentary – le commentaire français suit
The third installment of our Requiem series looks at one of the "massive" Requiem mass settings, that by Hector Berlioz. Today's work and performance each have a story to tell, and are worth sharing with you.
To begin our peek at Berlioz's Grande Messe des morts we must beign with the sheer instrumental mass the composer required for his composition: in addition to the large orchestra, tenor soloist, and SSTTBB chorus, Berlioz calls for no fewer than 16 timpani and four extra brass choirs! The forces required to pull this thing off were - it goes without saying - unheard of in the 1830's (we are talking of a Mahlerian scope here) and certainly not for an indoor performance.
Under commissuon by the French ministry of the interior, the Government had already identified a conductor (François-Antoine Habeneck) to lead its creation who - as I understand it - didn't necessarily rise up to the challenge. But even he had to admire the spark of genius and the sheer guts that it took to put that thing on paper. Arguably, the Requiem is Berlioz's second-most famous work, behind his Symphonie Fantastique, though, as one might imagine from its performance requirements, it is not the second-most frequently played work in his catalog...
The Requiem itself is in ten sections and runs in excess of an hour and a quarter. Not all of its music is massive (the extra forces explode onto the scene in the Tuba mirum portion of the Sequence and then disappear), and indeed much of it is quite intimate—for example the slender Quid sum miser, which immediately follows the outburst I just described, or the opening of the Sanctus, which features the solo tenor. And the Requiem ends in absolute tenderness, we mortals can hear only vague echoes in the form of timpani strokes left over from the explosive Last Judgment held earlier in the mass, now distant and gentle.
Sir Colin Davis is recognized as one of the finest and most incisive conductors of Berlioz's music, up there with Ansermet, Monteux, Munch (in the French "old guard") and some of their followers - Dutoit coming to mind. The fact Davis (and Sir Thomas Beecham) ranks in that group without French blood flowing in his veins is a touch of irony that isn't lost on me. Davis has recorded the Requiem Mass at least three times - and probably more - once in 1969 as part of his now famous Berlioz cycle with the London Symphony for the Philips label, a more recent LSO LIVE Recording with the same orchestra and the live performance that I chose today.
What is noteworthy about that recording is the setting and circumstance. In the night of February 13 1945, the city of Dresden was reduced to ruins by incendiary bombs dropped by the combined English and American air forces, and for the citizens of Dresden, that date, commemorated with annual concerts of suitable works, has taken on an almost religious significance.
The Dresden Staatskapelle may or may not be one of the great Berlioz orchestras—the recorded evidence is slim—it is certainly one of the great European orchestras, and its refined tone, flawless technique, and faultless ensemble is fully on display here. Add to it the overwhelming emotional power and unbearable spiritual intensity of the performance and what you get is truly awe-inspiring. Anyone who likes the work should at least hear this performance. It may or may not turn out to be a favorite when it is all said and done, but it has more potential to move the listener than a performance without the same context.
I think you will love this music too.
=====================================================================
Commentaire françaisLe troisième voilet de notre série explorant des grands Requiems se poursuit avec une performance des plus mémorables de la Grande Messe des mortss d'Hector Berlioz. Et l'oeuvre et la performance retenue méritent d'être explorées das notre billet d'aujourd'hui (en fait "nos" car j'offre cette baladodiffusion en tandem sur MQCD Musique Classique).
De prime abord, soulignois l'instrumentation gargantuesque requise par Berlioz pour son Requiem: en plus d'un grand orchestre, ténor soliste et choeur (SSTTBB), on ajoute pas moins de 16 timbales et quatre groupes de cuivres! Pour 1837, on parle de jamais-vu, certainement pour une performance en salle plutôt qu'en plein air.
Le commanditaire (le Ministère de l'Intérieur) avait déjà identifé un chef pour diriger la création du Requiem
( Francois-Antoine Habeneck) un homme qui - de toute apparence - n'aurait pas tout à fait tiré son épingle du jeu. Mais on ne peut qu'admirer Berlioz pour son choix audacieux (doit-on dire le culot?) de cette instrumentation. Le pari est une réussite, car le Requiem est sans doute (mis à part la Symphonie Fantastique) son oeuvre la plus populaire, quoique montée plutôt rarement à cause des proportions Mahlériennes requises.
Divisé en dix sections, le Requiem se veut une oeuvre souvent fort intime et découverte - en fait l'incursion de la masse orchestrale durant le Tuba mirum est probablement l'exceptiuon plutôt que la règle. Soulignons le Quid sum miser, qui suit le moment boeuf déjà mentionné, l'interventon du soliste dans le Sanctus, et un Agnus Dei d'iune remarquable tendresse , orné d'un soupçon des timbales, vestige lointain des échos du Jugement Dernier de la Séquence.
Tant qu'à la performance retenue, le jumelage de Sir Colin Davis et de la Staatskapelle Dresden ferait probablement froncer les sourcis de tout amateur de Berlioz. Davis est reconnu comme un grand interprète de l'oeuvre du compositeur mais l'orchestre Allemand (quoiquee d'une réputation bien méritée) n'est pas considéré un grand oirchestre de tradition française, et n'a pas vraiment une discographie Berlioz épatante.
Mais la performance croquée sur le vif est datée du 13 février, et fait partie d'une tradition locale, qui veut qu'on monte des concerts commémorant le raid aérien du 13 février 1945, où les alliés ont décimé la municipalité durant la DGM. On an donc ici une convergence: un grand chef qui dirige une grande oeuvre d'un des compositeurs dont il se veut l'un des plus grands interprètes, une oeuvre tout à fait de circonstance pour la soirée, et une atmosphère sans doute chargée d'émotions, qui alimentent et inspiurent les charges du chef.
A tout le moins, il s'agît ici d'une performance qui mérite d'être écoutée.
Bonne écoute, donc!
No comments:
Post a Comment