Berlioz; Honegger; Poulenc – Choral Works (CD)

Released: 2004 re-issue
Label: EMI Classics for Pleasure DDD 7243-5-86172-2-1 (EMI CDS 74935 2)
No of CDs: 2
ASIN: B00068V3CK

Hector Berlioz: L’Enfance du Christ, Op. 25

Conductor: Stephen Cleobury
Performers:

Sainte Marie  – Ann Murray
Le Récitant – Robert Tear
Saint Joseph - Sir Thomas Allen
Hérode – David Wilson-Johnson
Le Père de Famille – Matthew Best
Polydorus – Gerald Finley
Un centurion – William Kendall
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (leader Barry Griffiths)

Recorded in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, 17-19 July 1989

Arthur Honegger: Une cantate de Noël

Conductor: Martin Neary
Performers:
Donald Sweeney (Baritone)
Timothy Byram-Wigfield (Organ)
Waynflete Singers Choir
Winchester Cathedral Choir
English Chamber Orchestra
Recorded at Winchester Cathedral, March 1987

Francis Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël

Conductor: Martin Neary
Performers:
Timothy Byram-Wigfield (Organ)
Waynflete Singers Choir
Winchester Cathedral Choir
English Chamber Orchestra
Recorded at Winchester Cathedral, March 1987

Track Listings

Disc: 1

L’Enfance du Christ, Op. 25

1. Dans La Creche, En Ce Temps, Jesus Venait De Naitre
2. Nocturnal March
3. Qui Vient? - Rome
4. Toujours Ce Reve! Encore Cet Enfant
5. Seigneur! – Laches, Tremblez!
6. Les Sages De Judee, O Roi!
7. Eh Bien! Par Le Fer Qu’ils Perissent!
8. O Mon Cher Fils, Donne Cette Herbe Tendre
9. Joseph! Marie!
10. Overture
11. The Shepherds’ Farewell
12. The Holy Family Rests

Disc: 2

L’Enfance du Christ, Op. 25

1. Depuis Trois Jours, Malgre L’ardeur Du Vent
2. Dans Cette Ville Immense
3. Entrez, Entrez, Pauvres Hebreux
4. Pour Bien Finir Cette Soiree – Trio For Two Flutes And Harp
5. Vous Pleurez, Jeune Mere…
6. Ce Fut Ainsi Que, Par Un Infidele
7. O Mon Ame

Une cantate de Noël

8. Largo - Andante
9. De Profundis
10. Doppio Movimento
11. O Viens, O Viens Emmanuel! – Freu Dich, Freu Dich, O Israel!
12. Freu Dich, Freu Dich, O Israel!
13. Es Ist Ein Reis Entsprungen/Il Est Ne/Gloria In Excelsis Deo
14. Vom Himmel Hoch
15. O Du Frohliche/Stille Nacht/Il Est Ne/ Vom Himmel Hoch
16. Gloria In Excelsis Deo
17. Laudate Dominum Omnes Gentes
18. Largo

Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël

19. O Magnum Mysterium
20. Quem Vidistis Pastores
21. Videntes Stellam
22. Hodie Christus Natus Est

What the Critics say

BBC Radio 3 “Building a Library” First Choice – 22 December 2001 (William McVicker)
Julian Rushton, BBC Music Magazine

Performance: ****
Sound: *****

With a broadly phrased prologue and a crisp fugal Marche nocturne, Best promises in his L’enfance du Christ ‘a more operatic treatment than it sometimes receives’. It is not often, of course, that the conductor himself is capable of a pretty mean Scarpia. But the approach is not eccentric; it takes the work as it is. Miles’s dark-hued Herod imperils the pitch as he plans to massacre the innocents, but (if one can accept the vibrato) his tormented aria is magnificent. The duet of Mary and Joseph feels perilously slow, although only a little below Berlioz’s prescribed tempo: Rigby seems to have difficulty sustaining the lines. With Finley and Howell an appealing pair of fathers and good solo, choral and orchestral contributions, Part 3 is well sustained, as is the glowing epilogue. Nothing could be less operatic than Part 2, kernel of the oratorio; the performance is appropriately straightforward and is overall as much meditative as operatic. Both stylish and enjoyable, the recording is surely the best available at present. It has a wide dynamic range: it may be difficult to find the optimum volume setting, but this is as it should be in Berlioz.

Edward Seckerson / Stephen Johnson, The Independent, 15 September 1995

Our critics give their verdicts on the week’s big release

Edward Seckerson: The Narrator tells us that a child has been born, that the weak are filled with hope, and the powerful with fear. On the surface of it, L’Enfance du Christ is everyone’s first Bible class with Berlioz seeming to take the child’s perspective in music of innocence, wonder and expectation – music of the utmost concision and restraint. It’s almost as if the enormity of this child’s significance were too great to be expressed in any other terms but these.

What could be simpler and yet more momentous than the sequence of mysterious string unisons that preface the Epilogue, stretching out before us, punctuating the silence like so many unanswered questions? Matthew Best’s Corydon players imbue them with an extraordinary intensity. That’s the challenge of L’Enfance: realising the full import of the emotional subtext without distorting its beautifully composed surfaces.

Best and his team maintain that balance to perfection. The “Song of Herod” is full-on “operatic”, the burden of power movingly, humanely conveyed in Alastair Miles’s resolute bass, but equally in the heart-aching inflections of Berlioz’s cellos. And what a masterstroke to turn all that emotion in on itself as Herod relates his dream to the soothsayers and the still, chill voice of the clarinet once more murders sleep. More masterful still is the dramatic leap from the climax of this scene, the moment of Herod’s terrible edict, to the Nativity itself. Again, who can say exactly what it is that gives this scene its inner-light, its heightened sense of rapture: the answer lies somewhere between the letter of the score and the tender voicings of Jean Rigby, Gerald Finley and one plaintive oboe.

No previous recording of L’Enfance du Christ has moved me like this one. The choral singing is a joy, the orchestral playing poised, resourceful, so aware. Technically, this version is magical, exploring the full theatrical potential of shifting perspectives: like the distant “Hosannas” lighting up the night sky at the close of Part 1. In a word: heavenly.

Stephen Johnson: Best says he wanted to bring out the “operatic” side of L’Enfance du Christ – to “strip away the rather pious `oratorio’ approach in favour of something more human and dramatic”. It sounds like an excellent idea: whatever else L’Enfance might be, it certainly isn’t a stodgy Victorian sermon in music. The changing microphone perspectives are quite effective, and never overdone, though I think I might have preferred a less etherealised approach in the final chorus; it’s wonderful music – and rather well sung too. This isn’t supposed to be a heavenly chorus; the choir speaks for us.

But the performance itself strikes me as anything but operatic. It’s spacious, expansive, atmospheric, often very beautiful, but more timeless than dramatic. That’s not really a problem, though, when there’s singing like that of John Aler as the Narrator, Gwynne Howell as the Ishmaelite “Pere de Famille” who rescues the Holy Family (not one of the most gripping parts of the story, surprisingly, but persuasively performed) and especially Alastair Miles as Herod – the opening phrase of his aria “O misere des rois!” is heavy with a sense of the curse of power, and magnificently phrased.

Jean Rigby’s intonation isn’t quite secure at her first entry, but she makes a lovely sound, and blends very effectively with Gerald Finley’s Joseph. As you’d expect, given Best’s credentials as a choral conductor, the choir is technically and expressively first-rate, and the Corydon Orchestra – a much more recent creation – plays impressively too. But it is the most other-worldly L’Enfance du Christ I’ve ever heard. If the idea appeals, don’t hesitate.

The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs

‘An ideal choice for those who want an imaginative view and a superb modern recording’

Classic CD

‘Luminous Berlioz, with some superb soloists’

Gramophone

‘This new recording of Berlioz’s appealing work well stands comparison with its much-praised predecessors’

‘A new wonder of a score on each hearing, and rarely more impressive than here’

‘Sonically it is a real gem, a superbly focused, natural and musical balance in which everything feels right’

In Tune

‘Another high recommendation’

Organists’ Review

‘Best has just the right ideas with this work … the tale is turned into a living story. The solo roles, minor as well as major, are sung with distinction. I can warmly recommend it to you’

Ritmo, Spain

‘Imprescindible’

Choir & Organ

‘The choir’s contribution is a tour de force of expressiveness, discipline and meticulous attention to detail … An engagingly winsome interpretation which many will find profoundly moving’

Classic FM Magazine

‘An engaging and moving recording with superb singing from soloists Alastair Miles, Jean Rigby and Gerald Finley‘