Une cantate de Noel / Horace Victorieux

Alban Gerhardt (cello), James Rutherford (baritone) & BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, Thierry Fischer

Honeggers kerstcantate

Arthur Honegger schreef "Une Cantate de Noël" - zijn laatste werk - in 1953. De cantate is gecomponeerd voor gemengd koor, baritonsolo, orgel en orkest en een klein kinderkoor en behandelt het bijbelse kerstverhaal. Het huidige programma wordt afgerond met een selectie van Honeggers grote orkestwerken. Alban Gerhardt schittert hier als solist met superieur spel, waarbij hij talent combineert met verbeeldingskracht en een verbluffende muzikaliteit. Hij weet hoe hij met een behendige strijkstok en snelle vingers vakkundig de scène moet neerzetten, zonder gimmicky of gemaniëreerd over te komen.

Honegger:
 Cello Concerto
 Horace victorieux
 Prélude, fugue et postlude
 Une cantate de Noël

"…an excellent introduction to a still underestimated composer. Thierry Fischer's vivid account of the Prélude, Fugue et Postlude makes one all the more astonished that this is the only recording available of this powerful piece. In the Concerto, Alban Gerhardt ranged from the seductive to the sensational... in the Cantate de Noël... the music grows and grows over the implacable tread of the bass, until the tension is broken by bright children's voices singing 'Joie et paix sur toi, Israel' - truly inspired moment..."
BBC Music Magazine - December 2008 *****

"The works collected here cover the full range of Honegger's mature career, from the volatile 'mimed symphony' Horace victorieux, his first major orchestral utterance (1920-21), to his final completed work, Une cantate de Noël (1952-53). In expressive range, the music alternates from Yuletide light and shade to the Stravinskian high jinks of the Cello Concerto's finale (1929), to the high drama of Horace victorieux, not otherwise available. Horace victorieux was the first real indication of Honegger's natural genius for large-scale orchestral composition. Based on Livy's bloodthirsty tale of Publius Horatius, the score combines vigorous, martial allegros depicting the combat and evocative lyrical episodes for the uneasy love of Horatius's sister for his enemy, Curiatius.
Heard in abstract, it proves a compelling symphonic poem of elemental power. There is a hint of the same quality in the less intense Prelude,Fugue and Postlude Honegger extracted in 1948 from his 1929 score for Amphion, although its atmosphere – based on Greek myth – is quite peaceable. There is a real touch of Christmas to the Cantata, one of Honegger's most popular works despite its gloomy, tonally ambiguous opening quarter. It is excellently sung.
Fischer directs controlled but expressive accounts of all four works which would grace any collector's shelves. Gerhardt is excellent in the Concerto, although its delicate, plaintive opening is eclipsed by proximity to Horace's close. Hyperion's superb recording has much to commend it, dealing superbly with some huge dynamic ranges."
Gramophone - Classical Music Guide 2010