French Ballet Music of the 1920S

CHAN 10290X Front.qxd 14/9/06 1:20 pm Page 1 CHAN 10290 X CHANDOS CLASSICS CHAN 10290 BOOK.qxd 14/9/06 1:15 pm Page 2 L’Éventail de Jeanne 29:57 Ballet in One Act by ten French composers Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) 1 Fanfare 1:24 Pierre-Octave Ferroud (1900–1937) 2 Marche 3:12 Jacques Ibert (1890–1962) 3 Valse 3:44 Lebrecht Music &Lebrecht Arts Photo Library Alexis Roland-Manuel (1891–1966) 4 Canarie 2:11 Marcel Delannoy (1898–1962) 5 Bourrée 3:20 Albert Roussel (1869–1937) 6 Sarabande 3:30 Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) 7 Polka 2:14 Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) 8 Pastourelle 1:58 Georges Auric (1899–1983) 9 Rondeau 3:28 Members of the Groupe des Six with Jean Cocteau at the Eiffel Tower in 1921 (from left: Tailleferre, Poulenc, Honegger, Milhaud, Cocteau and Auric) Florent Schmitt (1870–1958) 10 Kermesse-Valse 4:54 3 CHAN 10290 BOOK.qxd 14/9/06 1:15 pm Page 4 Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel 20:50 Arthur Honegger (1892–1955) Ballet in One Act 17 Marche funèbre 3:46 by members of the Groupe des Six Germaine Tailleferre from the spectacle by Jean Cocteau 18 Quadrille. Pantalon – Été – Poule – Pastourelle – Georges Auric Final 3:03 11 Ouverture. Le 14 juillet 2:29 Georges Auric Darius Milhaud 19 Ritournelles 2:01 12 Marche nuptiale 1:57 Darius Milhaud Francis Poulenc 20 Sortie de la noce 0:24 13 Discours du général. TT 50:52 Polka pour deux cornets à pistons 0:45 14 La Baigneuse de Trouville. Philharmonia Orchestra Carte postale en couleurs 2:03 Christopher Warren-Green leader Geoffrey Simon Darius Milhaud 15 Fugue du massacre 1:47 Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) 16 Valse des dépêches 2:33 4 5 CHAN 10290 BOOK.qxd 14/9/06 1:15 pm Page 6 returned to traditional dance forms their Marche. Ferroud, on the other hand, is one French Ballet Music of the 1920s composite labour of love was unified into a of the least well-known composers delightful entertainment, the movements represented on this disc, though he wrote unfolding before the audience like the leaves several major works which he succeeded in During the 1920s there was a reaction in musicians and writers for whom she would of Jeanne’s precious fan. having performed during his short life (he was French music against the Wagnerian influences organise musical soirées. When a foreign The first performance took place privately killed in a car crash at the age of thirty-six), of the late nineteenth century, the performer was visiting Paris, Mme Dubost in Mme Dubost’s salon on 16 June 1927 with and had been a pupil of Florent Schmitt, impressionism of Debussy, and the dominating collected her friends together for an evening an orchestra conducted by Roger Désormière. whose music ends this ballet. His Marche is atmosphere of the circle round César Franck. at which the guest from abroad was the star The children were dressed in pretty fairytale the most lightly scored movement of the Many French composers now found inspiration attraction. On one such occasion a Red Indian costumes and the decor was enlivened by a entire work – requiring sixteen players in all – in the everyday world about them – the circus, Chief came and let loose on the astonished set designed with mirrors. Such was the and is a strangely trenchant piece, somewhat the music hall, the fairground and jazz. Theatre gathering a selection of Wild West war cries. ballet’s success that at the end of the reminiscent of the music of Stravinsky. music was more attractive to them than long- At the conclusion of this recital he implanted following season, on 4 March 1929, it was Valse. Ibert was a pupil of Fauré and winded symphonies and myth-laden operas, so in the hostess’s hair an enormous eagle’s given again, publicly, at the Paris 0péra. At the trained at the Paris Conservatoire before their aims became melody and brevity, leavened feather – a peace offering with which her head of the cast was the little Tamara becoming Director of the French Academy in with satirical pastiche and unorthodox harmony, husband was decidedly unimpressed. Mme Toumanova and L’Éventail de Jeanne marked Rome, and later the Paris 0péra. He is best and they harkened back not only to the music Dubost, however, cried, her debut before she went on to become a known for his ‘musical souvenir’ Escales (Ports of turn-of-the-century Paris, but also to the But it’s marvellous, my dear, it’s just as if he had famous international ballet star. of Call) but the Valse heard here – surprisingly simple, stylised dance forms of the seventeenth decorated me with the Légion d’honneur! Although one or two movements of this sophisticated for a children’s ballet, though and eighteenth centuries. In addition to entertaining redskins in her ballet have occasionally been extracted for not without its humorous touches – also The two French ballet scores presented lounge, Mme Dubost ran a children’s ballet separate performance, this is the first time contains pre-echoes of his Divertissement of here combine many of these elements and, school and in the spring of 1927 she that the work has been recorded in its entirety. 1930. being collaborative efforts, provide a unique capriciously presented ten of her composer Fanfare. Ravel, the best-known French Canarie. Roland-Manuel studied with two of cross-section of the work of a dozen friends with leaves from her fan, asking each composer of the group, contributed the the other composers represented in this composers – some well known, others barely of them to write a little dance for her pupils. shortest piece! He was one of the performers work – Ravel and Roussel – and combined mentioned in textbooks on the period. One of the composers, Darius Milhaud, at the work’s premiere and his little Fanfare musical composition with a literary career as seemed to recall many years later that their was such a success that it was encored at the critic and biographer. A canarie is a traditional L’Éventail de Jeanne co-operative venture had been a ‘surprise’ for end of the performance. Roland-Manuel later French dance rather like a gigue and Roland- The ‘Jeanne’ of L’Éventail de Jeanne (Jeanne’s Mme Dubost, rather than a ‘commission’ from described it as Manuel’s Canarie comes complete with suitable Fan) was one Madame Jeanne Dubost, a her. In any event the various contributors a Lilliputian flourish which begins like the buzzing triple-time chirrupings. Its outer sections Parisian hostess and patroness of the arts together provided a charming children’s ballet of troops of insects and rises to its climax in the consist almost entirely of lengthy rallentandos, who was at the centre of a group of for their colourful hostess, and as they style of Götterdämmerung. which make this a rather wistful miniature. 6 7 CHAN 10290 BOOK.qxd 14/9/06 1:15 pm Page 8 Bourrée. Delannoy was largely a self-taught whilst partnered by a small boy billed as larger forces for the Kermesse-Valse than for thus gaining for himself and Les Six some composer, having formerly been an architect Monsieur Storms! the earlier dances. Nevertheless, Schmitt’s welcome – if notorious – publicity into the and painter, though he did study for a time Pastourelle. The music of Poulenc is noted music provides a rumbustious finale which bargain. with Arthur Honegger. His ballets were for its wit and melody – qualities to be effectively combines a romantic ballroom Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel (The Newly- particularly successful and for L’Éventail de found in abundance in his delightful ballet scene with all the open-air gaiety of a carnival. weds on the Eiffel Tower) received its first Jeanne he wrote a bourrée – a French dance Les Biches, as well as in the number heard performance at the Théâtre des Champs- of sixteenth-century origin often found in here. The pastourelle is of twelfth-century Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel Élysées on 18 June 1921, conducted by baroque suites. Robust and lively, Delannoy’s origin and is a ‘light song’ with a whiff of the During the First World War Jean Cocteau, the Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht. The score and music also carries its own reminiscences and countryside about it. Poulenc’s charming Parisian aesthete, propagated his concept of a orchestral parts were collected up when the inhabits the same sound world as Ravel’s contribution is well known as an independent music which would be quintessentially French, Swedish Ballet returned home and they Le Tombeau de Couperin. piano transcription but is heard here in its anti-romantic, allied to modern popular culture disappeared from view in the Stockholm Sarabande. Roussel embarked on a musical original orchestral form. and characterised by simplicity, clarity and Dance Museum where they were rediscovered career after some years in the navy and, Rondeau. The output of Auric included the humour. He befriended a group of musicians in 1956. Even then Milhaud’s ‘Wedding having resigned from the service to devote his music for a surprising number of classic films with many similar aims, known as the Groupe Massacre Fugue’ had been lost altogether and time to composition, went on to become one and his score for Moulin Rouge featured a des Six (Auric, Durey, Honegger, Milhaud, it was not until 1971 that the composer wrote of the most important composers of the Theme Tune which went straight to the top of Poulenc and, the only woman in the group, a new one for incorporation in the published modern French school.

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