Dubois: Symphonies, chamber and sacred music

[Alan Howe]

The set is worth buying on CD, though. The book is a mine of information and the music's splendid. Still, I quite understand why downloaders are somewhat miffed...

[BerlinExpat]

The essays in the book are superior to many standard CD inserts and I wouldn't be without them. Because the book format doesn't fit my CD shelving I copied the two symphonies to a single CD which I then couldn't stop playing and wondered why such wonderful music has been denied us for so long.
The gorgeous piano quartet led me to search for more of Dubois' chamber music and I found three CDs on the Canadian ATMA Classique label (also available as a download) and all three have become favourite late evening listening. There are 17 works in total ranging in length from about 30 mins for the piano quintet and piano quartet down to nearly 2 mins for the Canon pour violon et violoncelle avec accompagnement de piano. I would recommend going for all six CDs.
Palazzetto Bru Zane are sponsoring Lalo's Le Jacquerie (completed by Arthur Coquard) at this year's Radio France music festival in Montpellier. The single concert performance is on July 24th at 20:00 and will probably, as in the past, be broadcast live. Véronique Gens and Charles Castronovo are among the soloists.

[Alan Howe]

I agree about the Atma CDs - splendid, all of them. Funnily enough, I've done the same with the Dubois symphonies. They'd make a marvellous single CD, wouldn't they?

Thanks for the info about the Lalo. Any idea what sort of opera it is?

[eschiss1]

Opera in 4 acts begun by Lalo, completed after his death by Coquard; some material available @ IMSLP...

[Alan Howe]

Off-topic, briefly: is the Lalo a tragedy or comedy or....?

[Mark Thomas]

I'm not going to duplicate Alan's movement-by-movement description of Dubois' First Symphony, but I'm very happy to agree with his view that this a really fine piece of work by the 71 year old Dubois, it's vigour and inventiveness never betraying for a second his (by the standards of the time) advancing years. His melodic material and orchestral colouring are first rate throughout and Dubois' use of light and shade, constantly varying the mood of the work, is quite masterful. It is recognisably a fin de siècle French symphony, with the same echoes of Franck and Wagner that one hears in other French symphonies of the same era, but there is none of the heaviness which sometimes besets them. This work is often feather-light in its textures, and it's in those passages where Dubois' orchestration is especially beguiling and inventive. The contrasting blazing brass-led climaxes have strong whiffs of Elgar, as do the several nobilimente-like passages for the strings in the first and third movements especially. That said, Dubois is entirely his own man, and overall there is an individuality to the Symphony, which has a grandness and a nobility which is entirely appropriate for Dubois' tribute to his homeland. It's not really a French equivalent of Elgar's own First Symphony, but that's the nearest which I can get to characterising the piece. This really is a major work which is genuinely repertory-worthy.

The Second Symphony now beckons...

[adriano]

"La Jacquerie" is an adaptation of Mérimées play of the same title.
It's the writer of the novel "Carmen".
It's about a French peasant's revolt in France in 1358
See here:

Must read it before knowing if it's tragic or comic :-) In my library I only have Mérimées complete novels and tales...
But, according to the IMSLP vocal score, the protagonist is being killed and dies in the arms of his mother, so it must be tragic.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Adriano. Hastens back to topic...

[Alan Howe]

Just a thought: I often think that an important part of Elgar is what he seems to have learned from Richard Strauss in terms of orchestral richness and swagger. It's this, for example, which is entirely missing from Dubois' music, magnificent though it is (especially in the Symphonie française).

[eschiss1]

That makes me curious whether Dubois knew any of Magnard's earlier orchestral music, and one way or the other whether his symphonies sound anything like Albéric's (as often said, but it's true and no insult) "austere" muse (maybe not so much "anything" as in detail...)

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, I agree Alan, no swagger, nothing imperial about the First Symphony. It was the brass writing which reminded me of Elgar and in comparing Dubois' Symphony with Elgar's I didn't mean to imply any similarity of atmosphere apart from a certain nobility, and to suggest a parity of stature. I certainly wouldn't describe Dubois' First as austere, Eric.

[Alan Howe]

No, Dubois' music doesn't resemble Magnard's at all. It's music of the Saint-Saëns generation: the influences are primarily Wagner and Franck, but there is a delicious clarity and variety about the orchestration. As Mark says, there is also a robustness about the brass writing and a certain nobility which remind one of Elgar. All in all, music whose neglect is quite incomprehensible.

[Mark Thomas]

The Second Symphony is, on the whole, a more relaxed and sunny affair than its predecessor. Think of the contrast between Brahms' First and Second Symphonies. It's also a few minutes shorter at just over the half hour duration. The first movement begins with a startling reminiscence of Mussorgsky's Night on a Bare Mountain, but there's little that's dark about this punchy, positive music which has plenty of momentum and contrast. The short slow movement is broadly melodic and builds to an impressive conclusion before dying away. It is not as contrasted in its material as its counterpart in the Symphonie Française, but still provides an effective counterweight to the positive atmosphere created by the opening Allegro. The even shorter Allegretto which follows is an easy going, untroubled creation, slightly bucolic in its atmosphere. A busy brass-led opening for the finale sets the scene for this upbeat conclusion to the Symphony, in which Dubois returns to the atmosphere of the first movement, complete with a couple of fleeting recollections of its material. There's a beautifully judged contrasting quiet passage in the middle of the movement, before the celebratory mood returns. The performance, by different forces from those employed in the other symphony, is absolutely first rate - enthusiastic and committed.

All in all, this is another fine piece of work from Dubois although not, I think, quite up to the Symphonie Française's very high standard. The first two movements are particularly impressive, but I did feel that the work tailed off just a little and that the melodic material in the final three movements wasn't quite on a par with that in the first, or throughout the First Symphony. In all other respects, though, this is very much a worthy companion to that magnificent creation, showing Dubois' powers of invention and fantasy undimmed at 75. I see that there's a Third Symphony too...

[Alan Howe]

I see that there's a Third Symphony too...

Yes, I saw that too. Here are some details (in French - sorry!):

TITRE : Troisième Symphonie
INSTRUMENTS : flûtes, hautbois, clarinettes en sib, clarinettes basse en sib, bassons, sarrussophone ou contrebasson, cors en fa, trompettes en ut, trombones, 3ème trombone, 4ème trombone ou tuba, timbales, violons, altos, violoncelles, contrebasses
DATE DE PUBLICATION : 1923
DÉDICACE : à la mémoire de mon ami C. Saint-Saëns
LIEU D'EDITION : Paris
EDITEUR : Heugel
http://www.theodoredubois.com/catalogue#anchor14

Score available for hire:

DUBOIS Th. (1837-1924)
SYMPHONIE N° 3
2 2 3* 3** – 4 2 3 1 – Timbales, cordes.
*Dont 1 clarinette basse – **dont 1 contrebasson
Partition et Matériel en location.
http://www.alphonseleduc.com/EN/orchestre_recherche_oeuvres.php?&orchestre_categorie=&soli_instru=&compositeur=DUBOIS+Th.&titre=&editeur=HE&valider=valider&page=2

So, it could be done! (And how about a symphony composed by an 86 year-old!)

[Gareth Vaughan]

Fleisher has scores and parts for all the Dubois symphonies, as Eric mentioned earlier in this thread.