d'Indy L'étranger on Accord

[alberto]

Maybe some or several will be interested to the release -already made in France- of d'Indy "L'etranger" (1903), a product of the Montpellier Festival 2010 (cond.L.Foster - Accord 2cd).
Being a fan (if not always an enthusiast) of d'Indy, and prompted (I must admit) by the very reasonable length of the opera (1h 37') I think I will check.
The review on the French magazine "Classica" is absolutely positive about the music, rather positive about the performance(and d'Indy, even in France, does not always enjoy good press).

[eschiss1]

Lawrence Foster is, I think, underappreciated in his advocacy - he does quite a whole lot for some of the composers we like, it seems, in concert and on recording (including Raff, I think? ... I assume Enesco is at least near the right side of the forum-border, for all his diversity of styles, and Foster's discography over 50 years is not huge but still fairly large...)

[Alan Howe]

Very attractive-sounding excerpts are available here:
http://www.amazon.fr/LEtranger-Multipack-CD-Vincent-DIndy/dp/B00AFCXDW0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360263041&sr=8-1

[Alan Howe]

I don't think this opera is going to set the world on fire, but it does contain some extremely powerful writing. The problem? It rather falls between two stools, coming across as it does as an opera caught between the two stools of morality play and quasi-verismo slice-of-life drama. It undoubtedly has the seriousness of purpose to measure up to the demands of the former, but is quite without the melodic interest to qualify for the latter. Nevertheless, it casts a powerful spell with its post-Wagnerian orchestral writing (plenty of echoes of Parsifal, etc.) and certainly engenders the sort of musical atmosphere that lingers in the memory (even if the themes don't). Recommended!

[petershott@btinternet.com]

And could not that comment be applied to nearly all of d'Indy's music? After those meetings early in his composing life with Liszt and Brahms, and then the exposure to Wagner, he has resolutely turned his back on what he sees as a certain triviality and lightness of touch and transparency in French music. All the mature music is immensely serious - and meticulously crafted - and d'Indy isn't much capable of any pronounced melody or lyricism that sings out loud.

Just by chance I listened to the E minor Piano Sonata this afternoon - a long, demanding and (I think) a magisterial work. But then wandering through the woods afterwards I found myself quite unable to hum to myself any of its principal features (let alone actually remember them!)

I find the same with the marvellous string quartets and the orchestral music. And if you run through the work list of compositions and mark up those you know or which have been recorded, you realise that these known works are almost the tip of the iceberg. The majority of d'Indy's music (including the operas and the choral music) languish away unknown - an unsung composer par excellence!

Just one example: I've always thought there was just one piano sonata. But a worklist also gives a Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 1, from 1869. Never knew of it until now. Does anyone know it?

[eschiss1]

my experience, with the first two string quartets, has been different- at least, I find them (both altogether and their component parts) very memorable. The violin sonata in C somewhat though I haven't heard it anywhere near as recently (I have heard the first two string quartets very often, then again. The earlier suite in D somewhat less often, where it's the odd bitonal musette-trio to the minuet- echoed I think by Ropartz years later in his 6th string quartet at a similar moment - that stays in the memory. The string sextet in B-flat I've heard only a few times, and there what I tend to remember or think I remember is a sublime moment in the finale...)

[alberto]

I would say that not all the mature music of d'Indy is immensely serious.
Maybe when mature (or late) d'Indy is light , that's not for his advantage. I think of "Horizon verts-Falconara" (third movements of "Poéme des Rivages, which I deem anyway an overall very fine work); mostly of some light moments in the "Sinfonia Brevis (n.3) - De Bello Gallico".   

[petershott@btinternet.com]

You are absolutely right, Alberto, and having listened again (with immense pleasure!) to various works I concede that my previous sketch of d'Indy was quite unbalanced. Yes, much of d'Indy is 'immensely serious', weighty and sometimes solemn and portentous. He will have no truck with, for example, the sensuous formlessness of Debussy. That Piano Sonata of 1907 is a perfect example. In these years it is Wagner - and Franck - who are his heroes.

But from around 1918 (and is the end of the War significant here?) there is a decisive change. As you say, with works like Poeme des rivages and Diptyque mediterraneen a different d'Indy emerges. The music is lighter, less dark, and the sun shines through its more open textures. The marvellous late Sextet is a prime example. So you are quite right to draw attention to my unbalanced profile.

These changes occurred after d'Indy, then in his mid-60s, retired and moved to the south of France. Moral: perhaps retirement and house moves are good for the soul.

[alberto]

Generally is pointed out also that D'Indy, aged 69 (and a widower since several years) in 1920 married a lady 32 years old.

[tabithamcgrath]

Maybe some or several will be interested to the release -already made in France- of d'Indy "L'etranger" (1903), a product of the Montpellier Festival 2010 (cond.L.Foster - Accord 2cd).
Being a fan (if not always an enthusiast) of d'Indy, and prompted (I must admit) by the very reasonable length of the opera (1h 37') I think I will check.
The review on the French magazine "Classica" is absolutely positive about the music, rather positive about the performance(and d'Indy, even in France, does not always enjoy good press).

Can you let me know how to get a copy of this review in the UK?

Many thanks

[BFerrell]

Is an English libretto included?

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Yes, it is. The plastic box contains two booklets - the first on the opera plus detailed synopsis by Michel Fleury (in French, and with an English translation by John Tyler Tuttle), and the second being a generous 63 page libretto with English translation on the facing page. The translation is a good idiomatic one - and not the gobbledegook that is sometimes found on CPO releases!

Actually all those CDs of operas recorded from the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussilion possess libretto and English translation. Vastly welcome!