Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Chamber Music (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:08:53 minutes | 618 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Brilliant Classics
A fine Danish chamber ensemble brings together a unique compilation of chamber pieces by an overshadowed contemporary of Messiaen.
The music of André Jolivet (1905–1974) is slowly being revived after decades of neglect, enabling us to discover a distinctive voice in the kaleidoscopic variety of 20th-century French music. Jolivet never followed some of his better-known contemporaries – Messiaen among them – down the path of serialism, yet his harmonic technique exercised a hidden influence on them (including the young Pierre Boulez). The Serenade (1945) for wind quintet, opening this collection of chamber music, casts a mystic air in its opening Cantilene before breaking off into wild peals of instrumental laughter in the Caprice. The world of Poulenc and Stravinsky is not so far away, but there is a grounded density to Jolivet’s writing which is entirely individual.From 1968, the Controversia for oboe and harp finds Jolivet at his most gesturally experimental, drawing on the combined talents and innovative techniques of Heinz and Ursula Holliger. The flurries and confrontations of the Controversia could hardly be predicted from the composer of the reflective miniatures which make up the Petite Suite (1941) for flute, viola, and harp, in the mould of Debussy’s late sonata. Indeed, the collection as a whole serves as an illuminating demonstration of Jolivet’s range and his evolution through a career spanning the turbulent aesthetic struggles of the last century.
The Pastorales de Noël (1943) for flute, bassoon, and harp fulfil a brief for picturesque and festive illustration, whereas the sonatinas for flute and clarinet (1961) and oboe and bassoon (1963) swoop and flutter with unpredictably Stravinskian fluidity between their instruments. Modal and exotic scales, Spanish rhythms, Debussyan sensuality: all these diverse elements and more keep the listener (and musicians) on their toes in this music. The album is enhanced by a new essay from Paul Griffiths, a pre-eminent authority on new and modern music.
Tracklist:
1. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sérénade for Wind Quintet (1945): I. Cantilène (03:53)
2. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sérénade for Wind Quintet (1945): II. Caprice (03:38)
3. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sérénade for Wind Quintet (1945): III. Intermède (04:09)
4. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sérénade for Wind Quintet (1945): IV. Marche Burlesque (05:11)
5. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sonatine for Flute and Clarinet (1961): I. Andantino (03:45)
6. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sonatine for Flute and Clarinet (1961): II. Quasi Cadenza (02:42)
7. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sonatine for Flute and Clarinet (1961): III. Intermezzo (03:31)
8. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Controversia for Oboe and Harp (1968) (10:14)
9. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Petite Suite for Flute, Viola and Harp (1941): I. Prélude. Modéré (01:50)
10. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Petite Suite for Flute, Viola and Harp (1941): II. Modéré sans Traîner (02:00)
11. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Petite Suite for Flute, Viola and Harp (1941): III. Vivement (02:15)
12. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Petite Suite for Flute, Viola and Harp (1941): IV. Allant (03:07)
13. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Petite Suite for Flute, Viola and Harp (1941): V. (Without Tempo Indication) (02:38)
14. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sonatine for Oboe and Bassoon (1963): I. Ouverture (02:13)
15. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sonatine for Oboe and Bassoon (1963): II. Récitativo (03:02)
16. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Sonatine for Oboe and Bassoon (1963): III. Ostinato (02:52)
17. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Pastorales de Noël for Flute, Bassoon and Harp (1943): I. L’Étoile (03:11)
18. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Pastorales de Noël for Flute, Bassoon and Harp (1943): II. Les mages (03:07)
19. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Pastorales de Noël for Flute, Bassoon and Harp (1943): III. La vierge et l’enfant (03:04)
20. Ensemble Midtvest – Jolivet: Pastorales de Noël for Flute, Bassoon and Harp (1943): IV. Entrée et danse de bergers (02:22)