Impressionist Symphonic Works?

[pjme]

Rita Strohl is an enigmatic, hugely fascinating  figure.  I decided to look for some information on the internet.

"Her works, showing a propensity for mysticism, combine various religious inspirations: these influences culminate in Les Noces spirituelles de la Vierge Marie (1903), Le Suprême Puruscha, a cycle mystique in seven parts (1908), and the drame lyrique La Femme pécheresse (1913)"-
Source: https://bru-zane.com/en/pubblicazione/rita-strohl/

" her Hindu and Celtic operas, for instance, are imbued with different forms of spirituality, while others, such as her Symphonie de la forêt (1901) and Symphonie de la mer (1902), display traces of pantheism. Rita Strohl was strongly influenced by Symbolist theories and in 1912, with the financial support of subscribers and the backing of personalities such as Odilon Redon, Gustave Fayet and her second husband, the master glassmaker Richard Burgsthal, she created the short-lived Théâtre de La Grange, where she presented operatic works composed in her mystical, Symbolist vein. Her sometimes esoteric experiments and her taste for mystery appear in her prefaces and in the annotations of her scores. "

"...The multifaceted talent of this Lorient native, who studied composition with Prix de Rome winner Adrien Barthe (1828-1898), and left behind a catalogue that also includes Wagnerian-influenced lyric dramas, for which there was an unrealized project to build a Bayreuth-style theater in Bièvres, which her second husband, the master glassmaker René Billa, known as Richard Burgsthal, is said to have realized. This gives an idea of how "excessive" is an appropriate term. The program offers a glimpse of this lyrical tendency with the prelude to the sacred mystery for orchestra, soloists, and choir, Yajnavalkya (1907), named after a Hindu sage who appears in the oldest philosophical and religious text, the Upanishads. The esotericism cultivated by Rita Strohl..."

From Crescendo magazine https://www.crescendo-magazine.be/un-album-avec-orchestre-confirme-le-grand-talent-de-rita-strohl/

"One might search somewhat in vain for the tricky question: whose music does it resemble? Strohl's music is indeed entirely her own: music of her time, undeniably French in style, but not directly inspired by famous contemporaries—a comparison all the more tempting given that some of the texts were set to music by other composers. The melody sometimes borders on declamation (the set even includes a melodrama where spoken text alternates with piano). Music and poem are intimately intertwined, with neither seeking to dominate the other. Depending on the piece, one might find the piano or vocal part more prominent (Strohl was, in fact, an excellent pianist), perhaps in a somewhat subjective manner.

However, after her husband's death in 1900, Rita Strohl withdrew from society and turned to a kind of esotericism. She remarried, however, and with a new husband as passionate as herself, she embarked on building a theater in Bièvres. Named "La Grange" (The Barn), it was intended to be a mini-Bayreuth: she had decided to dedicate herself entirely to opera. In a mystical and symbolic approach, she composed a Christian cycle (The Decline of the Ivory Tower, whose title is an allusion to herself), a Celtic cycle (with an opera spanning five days, two hours per day), and a final, unfinished Hindu cycle, initially planned for seven days. Her compositions were extraordinarily ambitious, unstageable given the resources they required. After several years of mostly unfinished projects, she divorced."

From: https://www.forumopera.com/cd-dvd-livre/strohl-musique-vocale/

Apparently some of her songs and chamber works were programmed alongside works by Fauré or Debussy.

"After the death of her husband, Emile Strohl, Rita's life took a second dramatic turn. A widow, she seduced a man twenty years her junior, René Billa, a dreamer, an artist with diverse ambitions who described himself as an architect, a pianist (which he truly was and readily played Rita's works), and who created stained-glass windows under the name Richard Burgsthal. The choice of this distinctly Germanic-sounding artist's name seems linked to his profound admiration for Wagner.

For three years, he courted her assiduously and somewhat tumultuously, resorting to blackmail, breakups, and threats of suicide, culminating in their marriage in Meudon in 1908. He promised her that together they would create a sublime, almost cosmic work. It was with him that she launched this somewhat audacious but grandiose project of creating a mini-Bayreuth in France. Anxious to escape the constraints of Parisian life and pursue experimental music rather than what was expected of her, she chose the tranquility of Bièvres and fled the capital. There, she settled with René and, with the support of Odilon Redon, Gustave Fayet, and other subscribers who believed in her, she conceived the grand project of "La Grange."

The place is almost mystical, a simple millstone building housing a performance hall that could host Rita's operas. For she had decided to give up composing symphonies to dedicate herself to opera. She conceived three grand lyrical works: a Christian cycle for which she also wrote the libretti (The Decline of the Ivory Tower), a Celtic cycle with a five-day opera—actually five two-hour operas—inspired by Breton music, and finally, a seven-day Hindu cycle, which remained unfinished (a score for six pianos and voices still exists). To bring all this to life, she envisioned gigantic projects involving complex stage machinery and grandiose sets. La Grange planned an orchestra pit as deep as possible, located three meters below the stage, so that the audience would not see the music being created, but would simply hear it, as if in a dream. It was also at La Grange that her husband built his first kiln to fire his stained-glass windows and experiment with his own techniques. He too was fascinated by the rarest myths, legends tinged with esotericism, alchemy, Baudelaire and symbolist poetry, the philosophy of Nietzsche, and devoted himself unconditionally to Wagner. His encounter with Gustave Fayet, a passionate hermeticist who had just acquired Fontfroide Abbey, whose library Odilon Redon decorated between 1909 and 1912, enabled him to create his own glassworks to produce the stained-glass windows for this abbey."

https://lepetitrenaudon.blogspot.com/2011/08/rita-strohl-le-reve-fou-de-la-grange-de.html
Unfortunately no information was given on the mysterious drawing.

[pjme]

Le théâtre de la Grange à Bièvres  :



"Fayet's musical sensibility was dominated by Wagner and his followers. From 1894 onward, he dedicated himself to promoting classical and romantic music through the programming of the Chambre Musicale: Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Haydn, Beethoven, Franck... His encounter with Wagner took place at the Paris Opera, where he attended the French premiere of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1897. The impact was so profound that he decided to travel to Bayreuth that same year with a group of friends and relatives, all equally captivated by the symbolic and anti-academic world of the Bavarian master. There, he heard the Ring Cycle and Parsifal. From that point on, Wagner's music became a regular feature in the programming of the Salle Berlioz, as well as in Fayet's personal music library, where he kept piano transcriptions of his works.

The influence of Symbolism was felt by Fayet around 1900 through the almost simultaneous encounter with Gauguin's art and Redon's work and personality. Gradually, a core group of musicians formed, frequently invited to Fontfroide from 1908 onward, who called themselves the "Fontfroidians." Among them were Déodat de Séverac and Ricardo Vines, friends of Maurice Fabre, Redon, and Monfreid, who were so important to Fayet. This small group mingled in Paris. They went to concerts together, visited exhibitions, and frequented the same Symbolist circles. In the summer, they would gather at Fayet's home in Fontfroide for stays where music played a significant role, along with discussions, walks, and exploring the surrounding countryside.

With Séverac, Fayet shared a great admiration for Mistral's work, in which they revered a regional as well as universal humanism. Fayet attended the dress rehearsal and premiere of Heliogabalus at the Béziers arena in 1910. From 1909, Ricardo Viñes joined the group. This virtuoso pianist, originally from Barcelona, specialized in performing avant-garde music. With Séverac, they played emotionally powerful pieces by Albéniz, Franck, Ravel, Debussy, Fauré, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Granados, Schumann, and others at Fontfroide. However, the leading artist in this circle was Richard Burgsthal, a painter and musician specializing in the works of Wagner. There could be no better artist to translate Wagnerian musical impressions into paintings, nor a better connoisseur of the iconography of this repertoire. Burgsthal had married the singer Rita Strohl, composer of esoteric operas drawing on Christian, Vedic, and Celtic traditions. Burgsthal painted the stage sets and decorated the walls of a private Wagnerian theatre they created in 1911 for a select audience in Bièvres, next to "La Verrerie des Sablons": the "Théâtre de la Grange". It had a short-lived existence, financially supported by Fayet, owner of the glassworks where Burgsthal created the stained-glass windows for Fontfroide."

https://gustavefayet.fr/gustave-fayet/la-musique/

[kyjo]

I second the mention of Arthur Meulemans' Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 (recorded by Marco Polo) from earlier in this thread. They're succinct and evocative works. We desperately need more of Meulemans' symphonies on disc - there are no less than 15 or so!

Another candidate for this thread could be Joseph Marx's Eine Herbstsymphonie (recorded by CPO). Despite the fact that Marx was Austrian, his music is often more French/Italienate in ethos. At over an hour long, it is surely a bit over-extended for its material, but fellow lovers of colorful, decadent orchestral wallows ought to find some things to enjoy in it!

[Roy Bland]

I second the mention of Arthur Meulemans' Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 (recorded by Marco Polo) from earlier in this thread. They're succinct and evocative works. We desperately need more of Meulemans' symphonies on disc - there are no less than 15 or so!

Another candidate for this thread could be Joseph Marx's Eine Herbstsymphonie (recorded by CPO). Despite the fact that Marx was Austrian, his music is often more French/Italienate in ethos. At over an hour long, it is surely a bit over-extended for its material, but fellow lovers of colorful, decadent orchestral wallows ought to find some things to enjoy in it!

Surely Meulemans's symphonies  are among the best results of Naxos, we hope more will come out of his vast production

[vandermolen]

I agree about Meulemans ('Pliny's Fountain' although not a symphony is a beautiful work). Also 'The Sea' by Ciurlionis and Dutilleux's First Symphony. VW's 'A Pastoral Symphony' as well.

[pjme]

I mentioned this before, I think,  Meulemans (and many other European composers born around 1900...) started after their studies as late Romantics (Wagner, Strauss, Reger...) came  under the spell of Debussy and Ravel (possibly add some Hindemith and a dash of Respighi), ...and then were lost in post WWII modernism. Some of Meulemans writings (after 1950)  are quite vicious as the names of Boulez, Stockhausen and Messiaen start emerging.
In several of his late works, like "Evasies" he drastically shortens the duration and increases the virtusosity - no more "romantic" efusions!, "not a single note too many" he writes. Check on YT i.e. the concerto for 2 pianos and the second pianoconcerto. (all radio recordings from the late sixties): short, quite nervous, abstract music.
Evasies, the 7th symphony and both concerti for orchestra were recorded for VRT or KLARA. Music, imho, closer to a mild form of "expressionism".

Several of his symphonies (nr 5  a vocal "Dance symphony", 6 "The sea" with alto, organ and vocalising chorus, 8 "Autumn", 9 "Dreamfire", 10 "Symphony of psalms", 11, 12, 13, 14, 15) were performed once or await their premiere.

It is a pity that Lodewijk De Vocht didn't write more orchestral music. His 1935 Symphony for vocalising chorus and large orchestra is a great, unusual creation and his early orchestral works (Wood spell, Towards a higher light etc.) brim with colour and subtle orchestration. Another work I'd like to see recorde is Norbert Rosseaus 1962 symphony - eclectic symphonism balancing between impressionism and expressionism.

The fourth symphony (winds and percussion) is an oddity in the otherwise orchestral (choral/vocal) series

"Stadspark" (1928) is like Pliny's fountain (1913), another work inspired by the province of Limburg.
Meulemans was living in Tongeren, close to the Dutch border and the city of Maastricht.

[Roy Bland]

perhaps Henri Busser (16 January 1872 31 December 1973) would be better in french topic but here IMHO absolutely proper

[pjme]

Henri Büsser (1872-1973!) knew and worked with Debussy.

Apparently he didn't write much purely orchestral music - no symphonies. His ballets and suites may be interesting :

Poème symphonique - Hercule dans le jardin des Hespérides op.18
Les trois sultanes (1923 - incidental music)
Manon op. 74 (incidental music 1925)
Ouverture "Minerve" op.7
Rhapsodie Armenienne  op. 81 (1930) (with viola)
Suite funambulesque op; 26
Ballet  - La ronde des saisons (1905)

[Roy Bland]

IMHO also her

https://fernandedecruck.com/

[Roy Bland]

Gustave Samazeuilh (1877-1967)

[Roy Bland]

1899/1938 belgique

[Roy Bland]

Delage (1879-1961) France

[maticevska]

Rita Strohl is an enigmatic, hugely fascinating  figure.  I decided to look for some information on the internet.

Based on your post I went and got myself a previously recommended recording of her orchestral works and had a tiny listen to a tiny portion of it; I can already tell that I'm going to like it a lot.

Very good sounding stuff here. Nice thick chords n ѕhit. Good colours. Thank you for posting!