Dukas Orchestral Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Paul (Abraham) Dukas
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 6/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 56
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN9225
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphony |
Paul (Abraham) Dukas, Composer
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Paul (Abraham) Dukas, Composer Yan Pascal Tortelier, Conductor |
| Polyeucte |
Paul (Abraham) Dukas, Composer
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Paul (Abraham) Dukas, Composer Yan Pascal Tortelier, Conductor |
Author: Lionel Salter
Three years ago, Yan Pascal Tortelier deservedly drew high praise from CH for his Chandos recording of Dukas's L'Apprenti sorcier and La peri (2/91); now, having moved from the Ulster Orchestra to the BBC Philharmonic, he continues his good work for this most severely self-critical composer. While The Classical Catalogue lists over 30 recordings of L'Apprenti sorcier, the present two works (which preceded it) are vastly less known to music-lovers in general; and since they neither illustrate an entertaining ballet, share the Impressionism of his contemporary and friend Debussy, nor exemplify the usual Gallic image of lightweight elegance, they tend to be less appreciated. But the tradition Dukas was following was that of Franck, and he was also heavily influenced by the Wagnerism then holding French composers in thrall. Both models can be discerned in the overture Polyeucte (after Corneille's tragedy), which was his first work to be publicly performed (though he had already written a great deal without publishing anything): nevertheless, and despite extensive Wagnerian use of the brass, there is a clarity (even delicacy in the third of its five sections) and an imaginative sense of colour which are individual to him.
The finely crafted Symphony composed four years later, in 1896—daringly in C major at a time when tonality was undergoing such general buffeting—shows Dukas as essentially a classicist, although the middle section of the central movement reveals that Nature romanticism had not passed him by. The eloquent performance here gives the vigorous first movement a splendid elan (and a terrific ending) while also luxuriating in the Franckian secondary subjects, there is lovely warm, lyrical playing and sensitive nuance in the second movement, and the finale (even more Franckian in its harmonic thinking) bubbles over with nervous energy. Served by exemplary recording quality, this is a warmly recommendable disc, offering a serious challenge to Jean Fournet's, though that is more generously filled.'
The finely crafted Symphony composed four years later, in 1896—daringly in C major at a time when tonality was undergoing such general buffeting—shows Dukas as essentially a classicist, although the middle section of the central movement reveals that Nature romanticism had not passed him by. The eloquent performance here gives the vigorous first movement a splendid elan (and a terrific ending) while also luxuriating in the Franckian secondary subjects, there is lovely warm, lyrical playing and sensitive nuance in the second movement, and the finale (even more Franckian in its harmonic thinking) bubbles over with nervous energy. Served by exemplary recording quality, this is a warmly recommendable disc, offering a serious challenge to Jean Fournet's, though that is more generously filled.'
Dukas Orchestral Works
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