Jean Cras (1879 - 1932)

[Kullervo]

I've seen talk about him scattered in various threads; why not a thread of his own?

I agree with the assessment that the Jeux Ämes d'enfants is simply adorable: this is one of those collections that etch in some remote and privileged corner of the musical memory.

Agreed! Last night while driving home the local NPR station played this very piece (in its orchestral arrangement) — now, it could have just been my exhaustion hindering my senses, but with the combination of that ethereal music and the extremely thick fog I was driving through, I felt that for a few minutes time had stopped. I must hear more of this absolutely gorgeous music!



The article on his life and music is a very interesting read. He was certainly a renaissance man!

[Maciek]

Well, some people know what appeared at the top of the results when I searched for this guy the other day. It makes me ask myself: do I really want to take the risk of listening to his music?

[Dundonnell]

Not sure that I can add much more to what I wrote about Cras on the 'What are You Listening To?" thread, except to repeat my strong recommendation for the Timpani discs

Glad you started the thread though, Corey

[Maciek]

Peter also posted a recommendation of a disc with a beautiful cover - but it's gone now, for some reason... (I mean his post disappeared.)

[Drasko]

Peter also posted a recommendation of a disc with a beautiful cover - but it's gone now, for some reason... (I mean his post disappeared.)

Perhaps some trigger-happy moderator found the pastelness of the picture to be offensive in these modern times and deleted it?

Anyhow I recently got this one from a friend, listened only to first disc so far and it's really beautiful, Journal de bord is a piece of first class maritime impressionism and shimmering naivete of Ames d'enfants is really as touching as Corey described, second disc has Legende for cello and orchestra and Piano Concerto.

[Dundonnell]

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,9.msg245246.html#msg245246

[pjme]

Yesterday I had some problems with my PC... everything is back to normal now.
Cybelia records doesn't exist anymore, but I suppose that they were the first to issue a CD with Cras' music : Journal de bord, Ames d'enfants and the pianoconcerto with Pierre Reach as soloist. Conductors were Pierre Stoll and James Lockhart



It is not bad - but I'm sure the new Timpani/Luxemburg PhO sounds better...

Indeed lovely music - Debussy's shadow is unmistakingly there....


P.

[Maciek]

Yes, this one also has a very nice cover (lucky composer ), but it's not the one you posted earlier.

I have it here, take a look:

[Maciek]

And in answer to Greg's query which reached me by PM, here's what I posted on another thread a couple of days ago:

[pjme]

I listened to that disc again yesterday. "Ames d'enfants" is for me the work that stands out . The pianoconcerto seems less inspired ( less well constructed) and made me think of both Debussy's Fantaisie and d'Indy's Symphonie Cévenolle.
I'll listen to Journal de bord later...
In this case -the Cybelia ca 1986 recording- the orchestra sounds quite "unpleasant", with raucous horns ( concerto) and thin strings....THe music needs much more refinement and polish.

P.

[greg]

And in answer to Greg's query which reached me by PM, here's what I posted on another thread a couple of days ago:

[Brian]

I've just listened to "Journal de bord," which I thought was utterly wonderful even if, at times, it sounded a bit like a slightly less showy younger sibling to Debussy's "La mer." I then switched over to the chamber music - the cello sonata, a half-hour work in three emotionally rich movements, highlighted by a really ravishing slow-movement climax which seems to come out of and melt back into nowhere, and a very satisfying quiet ending. I immediately found the score online and forwarded it to a cellist friend. Last year she performed a work in recital* after I made a similar recommendation, so perhaps those of you who live in the Texas area will get to hear Jean Cras on a recital program in 8 months' time. 

Goodness, but the Timpani label makes the most gorgeous-looking CDs available today.



*Piatigorsky's 'Paganini Variations'

[snyprrr]

I have the Piano Quintet, very chipper for the vintage most French PQs of this time are very Dramatic and virtuoso). The recording seems a bit harsh, though, and it does tend to minimize the pleasure, actually making it difficult for me to judge the music. I think there's more than one recording. Altogether though, this PQ might not be the best place to start.

[Brian]

Oh my goodness. The "Ames d'enfants" were merely okay, I thought, compared to the reactions other people have had in this thread. But the string trio - good lord! What an incredible piece so far - I'm only in the first movement. But it's vivid, original, bright, instantly lovable, from a fascinating perspective with a couple of striking intrusions of Moroccan/North African folk musical lines. Good lord I am loving Jean Cras' music, and so far the string trio is absolutely tops!

[Drasko]

Goodness, but the Timpani label makes the most gorgeous-looking CDs available today.

Covers for Cras Timpani series are prints by Henri Riviere, late 19th century french lithographer and photographer mostly in japonisme style which was in huge fashion in France at turn of the century. He is the author of one of my all time favorite prints: l'Enterrement aux parapluie from 1885.

[snyprrr]

Oh my goodness. The "Ames d'enfants" were merely okay, I thought, compared to the reactions other people have had in this thread. But the string trio - good lord! What an incredible piece so far - I'm only in the first movement. But it's vivid, original, bright, instantly lovable, from a fascinating perspective with a couple of striking intrusions of Moroccan/North African folk musical lines. Good lord I am loving Jean Cras' music, and so far the string trio is absolutely tops!

...Just when you thought you could get out,... they pull you back in... Al Pacino

Tell me more!!

[Brian]

...Just when you thought you could get out,... they pull you back in... Al Pacino

Tell me more!!

I listened to the string trio a second time last night. It's a really interesting piece, only about 22 minutes long but packs a lot in. The first movement has moments bordering on downright dissonant, chromaticism taken to the extreme, perhaps, and other moments which invoke Cras' contemporary Ravel; towards the end of the largo, though, we start to hear the intrusions of North African folk music, in very accurately hewn melodies for the violin and viola which really capture the scales of Moroccan music... the same goes for the scherzo, but my favorite part of the finale was definitely the very difficult, leaping opening dance for cello alone. A truly great diversion!

I was going to report that the piano music is less inspired - it all makes me want to listen to Ravel instead - but there is a jolting moment in Paysage No 2, "Champetre," which clear out of nowhere is as beguiling and lovely as anything Jean Cras wrote. Or so I guess - I hadn't heard Cras at all until yesterday, though now I've enjoyed nine of his works!

[Brian]

I've just discovered - perhaps you knew - that "Cras" is "tomorrow" in Latin. So, combining his job title with his name, Jean Cras has an almost absurdly easy-to-invent superhero name: Captain Johnny Tomorrow!

[Mirror Image]

Four years since the last post?!?!?

Anyway, time to reboot this thread with perhaps a little background on Cras:



Jean Cras was a gifted composer largely known for his chamber works and opera Polyphème (1912-1918). He might well have achieved greater fame had he not maintained a highly successful lifelong career in the French navy. Indeed, Cras reached the rank of rear-admiral and was decorated several times in World War I, achieving particular distinction for his valor in the Adriatic campaign. Musically, he typically garnered far less notice. For one thing, his education was modest, though ultimately adequate: he received no formal advanced training in composition, though he studied privately with Henri Duparc, who would become a lifelong friend and mentor. Cras remained a relatively obscure figure on the musical scene in France except for the final decade or so of his life. Stylistically, Cras was an Impressionist, but a freewheeling one, investing his music with occasional exotic influences inspired by his naval travels, and with Celtic and sacred elements. His later works divulged a more caustic expressive language, but without ever reaching much beyond the style of Bartók. Cras was versatile, turning out works in most genres, including opera, orchestral, chamber, choral, and song.

Jean Cras was born into a musical family in Brest, France, on May 22, 1879. His father was a brilliant naval surgeon whose example led young Jean in 1896 to enroll at the naval academy. In 1900 he relocated to Paris where he studied for three months with his newfound friend Henri Duparc.

Prior to World War I Cras was productive particularly in the realms of chamber, choral, and solo piano music. In 1921 Polyphème, not yet officially premiered, received first prize in the Concours musical de la Ville de Paris. It was premiered the following year by the Opéra-Comique in Paris with great success, and thereafter Cras was a much-in-demand composer in France. Cras now began turning more often to larger forms, as with the 1927 orchestral suite Journal de bord and the stage work Trois Noëls (1929), for vocal soloists, actors, chorus, piano, and orchestra. Cras' brilliant pianist daughter, Collette (wife of Polish émigré composer Alexandre Tansman), premiered Cras' 1931 Piano Concerto with great success. After his death in 1932 Cras was widely eulogized in France as one of the leading figures in French music. But his fame quickly evaporated and he was largely forgotten until the last decade or so of the 20th century.

[Article taken from All Music Guide]

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I'm late to the party here (as usual), but I listened to Cras' String Trio earlier this morning and as a result bought almost all of the Timpani recordings. This composer has a great style and I'm really digging the fact that Impressionism seemed to influence him and that much of his music has this 'oceanic' quality to it but this is quite understandable given his main occupation in the navy.

[The new erato]

I'm a great fan. Of all the slightly unknown frenchmen on Timpani, Cra is by far the most interesting and I hav a fair selection of the Timpani issues. His opera Polyeucte is truly great,