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.
André Jolivet (1905-1974) is considered one of the most interesting French composers of the 20th century. His vast oeuvre includes nearly all musical genres. Actively open to all musical genres (he never had a proper conservatory education) he developed a personal style that was distinctly avant-garde.
This new recording presents a variety of chamber music in which the flute plays a prominent role: Serenade for Wind Quintet, Sonatine for flute & clarinet, Petite Suite for flute, viola and harp, Pastorale de Noel for flute, bassoon and harp, and other shorter pieces: music of dazzling colours, vivid and vibrant, but also at turns serene and melancholic.
Played with astonishing virtuosity and “joie de vivre” by the Danish Ensemble MidtVest.
