Arthur Honegger (1892-1955)

[vandermolen]

I used to have that recording back in the good old days!  Serge Baudo and the Czechs recorded some great stuff back then!

There was also a great London recording of the Christmas Cantata with Ernest Ansermet conducting:

Both great performances. I find that work very moving. Honegger was dying when he wrote it. The LP you show Leo is featured in the Decca Ansermet set mentioned above.

[Cato]

Both great performances. I find that work very moving. Honegger was dying when he wrote it. The LP you show Leo is featured in the Decca Ansermet set mentioned above.

Many thanks for the information.  And while we are promoting works by Honegger, let us not forget (and again I show an LP from the past):

[vandermolen]

Many thanks for the information.  And while we are promoting works by Honegger, let us not forget (and again I show an LP from the past):

That fine performance is also in the excellent Decca box set. The set also includes its original LP double set companion Frank Martin's 'In Terra Pax' my favourite of his works.

[Cato]

That fine performance is also in the excellent Decca box set. The set also includes its original LP double set companion Frank Martin's 'In Terra Pax' my favourite of his works.

Okay, so it looks  like I will need to check my bank account's status with, as Leo McKern would say in code, SWMBO!        0:)

[ritter]

Okay, so it looks  like I will need to check my bank account's status with, as Leo McKern would say in code, SWMBO!        0:)

Not Rumpole, but apparently a movie based on the novel where the SWMBO phrase was coined  ...

https://www.youtube.com/v/bS5YmETSVCI

Thread duty:

I might have mentioned this before, but I think this DVD of Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher is highly recommendable. Sylvie Testud is outstanding in the title role:

[asin]B000N4SJH4[/asin]
Much, much cheaper in Europe, beware...

https://www.youtube.com/v/1cOBqPCtgkg

Conductor Alain Altinoglu will conduct Lohengrin in Bayreuth this summer, taking the controversial but ultimately successful Neuenfels production over from Andris Nelsons in what I think will be its final run...

[pjme]

On You Tube : Marion Cotillard as an excellent Jeanne!

http://www.youtube.com/v/W4T3jO1WMmM

[vandermolen]

Okay, so it looks  like I will need to check my bank account's status with, as Leo McKern would say in code, SWMBO!        0:)

Yes, you have to buy the Ansermet/Decca CD Honegger set. 

[vandermolen]

This is a wonderful CD, probably the best Honegger in my collection. It features the premiere recording of 'Une Cantate de Noël' recorded in 1954 (it was composed in 1953). It starts in a profound darkness, movingly realised in this recording, but ends, as appropriate for a Christmas work, in light. I have never been so moved by the work before. Honegger was very ill when he wrote it in hospital and it was his last work.  Although I am not a great admirer of Herbert Von Karajan I have always thought that his DGG recording of Honegger's 'Liturgique' Symphony was the best ever, especially for the hauntingly atmospheric birdsong ending. This live recording from 1957 is just as good in a different way, not as polished as the studio version but even more powerful and moving, especially the opening of the last movement, 'Dona Nobis Pacem'. The Liturgique has always reminded me of the contemporaneous 6th Symphony of Vaughan Williams and the violin passage in the coda takes you back to the world of The Lark Ascending:
[asin]B00OYXLIUA[/asin]
The booklet notes are only in French.

[GioCar]

Miss Cotillard performed the role of Saint Joan, very affectingly, in Barcelona (concert version) at the end of 2012. Snippets are available on YouTube...

Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher is a masterpiece, and now that concert is on a DVD (and a CD) by Alpha





I strongly recommend the DVD, if anything for the great performance of Marion Cotillard

[ritter]

I decided to go for the CD, but yes, you are right, Miss Cotillard's performnace is worth seeing as well.

But I cannot recomend this staged performance enough:

[asin]B000N4SJH4[/asin]
Sylvie Testud's portrayal of the title rôle is extraordinary.

[vandermolen]

Honegger is one of the most underrated of composers.

[ritter]

Just discovered on YouTube this rather moving performance of Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, from the Église de la Trinité in Paris in 2005, staged and conducted by Jean-Pierre Loré, with Céline Liger in the title rôle:

https://www.youtube.com/v/f2PPjSeMA2Y

I'm looking forward to a fully staged production expected here in Madrid at the Teatro Real in the 2017-18 season. 

[jlaurson]

just checking in at this thread. love me some honegger.
and for all that professed love, I should really compare the symphony cycles I have of his.
i had to write about honegger, recently, and re-noticed just how much of a masterpiece his third symphony is.

[Heck148]

My favorite Honegger works are 

Sym #3 - "Liturgique", and
Pacific 231

I have a recording of Mravinsky/LeningradPO on the Sym #3....wow!! really intense, white-hot level, the "Stupid March" of mvt 3 is played with such crass, biting brutality, the stunning contrast of the peaceful, hopeful final section is most telling. This is Mravinsky/Leningrad at their best, from live performance 2/65, coupled with rousing Hindemith Symphony [#5] "Harmonie der Welt" [Melodiya]

[vandermolen]

just checking in at this thread. love me some honegger.
and for all that professed love, I should really compare the symphony cycles I have of his.
i had to write about honegger, recently, and re-noticed just how much of a masterpiece his third symphony is.

Interesting and convincing analysis of the 'Liturgique'. Karajan's is the greatest performance although I'm not usually a fan of Karajan. It also reminds me of Symphony 6 by Vaughan Williams, a contemporaneous score, although the birdsong ending of the Honegger is more optimistic.

[Scion7]

Love his instrumental stuff - he and Milhaud were the best of the modern, post-Ravel folks.

[snyprrr]

Symphony 4, Erato- MOST BEAUTIFUL
Symphony 5, Markevitch- the desolation of WWII in music and triumph

Symphonies 2-3. karajan

Symphony 1, munch...DSCH?


Concertino for Piano: I like Thibaudet, some don't

Cello Concerto, Slava, Webber

String Quartets, Erato Quartet

Double Concerto- MY FAVORITE SLOW MOVEMENT Holliger/Aurelot


Erato 2CD set of Orchestral Works and Le Roi david

[nathanb]

Anyone heard this disc?

[asin]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61l1bWMOUPL._SS500.jpg[/asin]

I like Honegger for what he is, but he's not exactly my primary style right now... I'm interested moreso because I'm currently in that "completionist mode" with Mode records. Past the 90% point on my iPod, ya know?

[jlaurson]

Anyone heard this disc?


Christophe Colomb by A. Honegger
I like Honegger for what he is, but he's not exactly my primary style right now... I'm interested moreso because I'm currently in that "completionist mode" with Mode records. Past the 90% point on my iPod, ya know?

Fixed link/image. But, no, I haven't.

[snyprrr]

Anyone heard this disc?

[asin]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61l1bWMOUPL._SS500.jpg[/asin]

I like Honegger for what he is, but he's not exactly my primary style right now... I'm interested moreso because I'm currently in that "completionist mode" with Mode records. Past the 90% point on my iPod, ya know?

\\
Yea, I don't know how necessary that would be... JUST SAY NO!!!!