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Honegger Symphony No 3

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Honegger Symphony No 3

Liturgique - NZ Symphony Orchestra
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Description

HONEGGER: Symphony No. 3, ‘Liturgique’ / Pacific 231 / Rugby, performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.555974

  • Conductor: Takuo Yuasa
  • Orchestra(s): New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Born of Swiss-French parents, Arthur Honegger spent much of his life in Paris, though his music is far removed from the gaiety and whimsicality frequently evoked by the group of French composers known as Les Six. He is now best remembered for a sequence of vivid and increasingly dramatic orchestral works, including the Third Symphony, which gives voice to the composer’s horror at the new levels of barbarity and inhumanity perpetrated by mankind during the war. While Honegger’s Pacific 231 is a graphic musical depiction of a train in motion and the tone poem Pastorale d’été describes summer in the Alps above Berne, Rugby is less a graphic depiction of the sport than an effervescent scherzo that can be enjoyed purely as music.

Honegger Symphony No 3 Review

"Because most other record companies produce maybe one or two discs a month, it isn’t hard to decide which one or ones to review. But because the folks at Naxos usually produce up to a dozen new discs a month, it’s a little more problematical which ones to request for review. Sometimes, they’re mediocre. Sometimes one lucks out and finds a gem. This one is a gem.

Performances and sound are top-notch for this recital of Honegger orchestral music, every bit the equal of David Zinman’s fine Decca recording of some years back and at up to half the price. It’s a bargain that’s hard to resist, especially if you’ve always wanted a topflight Pacific 231, possibly Honegger’s most-famous work, but haven’t cared to pay full price for the accompanying things on a full-price disc.

Arthur Honegger (1892–1955), like other composers I’ve mentioned before, was one of those modernists of the first half of the twentieth century who nonetheless clung to the last vestiges of Romanticism. We get visions in his work of emotional power, impressionism, and tuneful melodies aplenty. It’s a felicitous arrangement.

The album begins with his Symphony No 3, subtitled “Liturgique.” From 1945, it is no celebration of Allied victory in World War II but a liturgical lament for the souls lost in the War and the devastation the War incurred, ending in a prayer for future peace. It is quite a powerful and moving composition that deserves wider recognition, and Maestro TakuoYuasa plays it in such a way as to convey its varying moods significantly.

The four short tone pictures, Pacific 231, Rugby, Mouvement symphonique, and Pastorale de’ete, Yuasa plays just as well and express their visual images well, too, even if Honegger said he wasn’t trying explicitly to create any specific pictures.

The sound is nothing short of terrific. It’s one of Naxos’s best efforts, with not only a wide stereo spread, wide frequency response, and wide dynamics, but with one of the best recreations of orchestral depth I’ve heard on any of Naxos’s releases (or anyone else’s). While I noted a touch of congestion in the loudest passages, the sound is very impressive for the relatively few bucks invested." Classical Candor, John J. Puccio

Track Listing:

Disc 1:
  1. Symphony No. 3, "Liturgique"
  2. Rugby (Symphonic Movement No. 2): Allegro
  3. Symphonic Movement No. 3: Allegro marcato
  4. Pacific 231 (Symphonic Movement No. 1): Modere
  5. Pastorale d'ete: Calme
Release date Australia
July 1st, 2013
Album Length (Minutes)
65
Label
Naxos
Number of Discs
1
Original Release Year
2002
Box Dimensions (mm)
142x125x10
UPC
747313597420
Product ID
21577379

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