Françaix: Orchestral Music

Most of Françaix's music has a light, often droll character. He was one of the first to use what has become, with many modern composers, neoclassic eclecticism; he borrows liberally from styles of the past. His 'Sérénade', written in 1934 and included here, anticipates the similar style Stravinsky used in his 'Dumbarton Oaks Concerto' and 'Jeu de cartes.' Entirely winning, this little 9-minute suite uses the varying meters and tongue-in-cheek sassiness made so familiar by Stravinsky.

The Symphony in G Major, the third of Françaix's symphonies (none of them is numbered, however) is most easily described as a marriage of Haydn and Stravinsky (Harold Shapero's 'Symphony for Classical Orchestra' comes to mind). I is jaunty, II pensive, III has wheeze-box alternating chords reminiscent of those in 'Petrouchka' and includes a three-legged tango. IV, a saucy Allegro, is the most Haydnesque but goes delightfully far afield harmonically.

'Ouverture anacréontique' is an 11-minute ode to wine, women and song. (Anakreon was the Greek poet who wrote poems on those most convivial of subjects.) Lushly scored string-based love songs alternate with lively wind-dominated passages suggesting dancing and drinking.

'Scuolo di Ballo' is the earliest work here, written for a ballet based on a tale by Goldoni and using many quotations from the string quintets of Luigi Boccherini, the 18th-c. Italian cellist and composer who virtually invented the two-cello quintet. The longest work here at 25-minutes, this is quintessential neoclassic ballet music that limns a tale of rivalry amongst members of a ballet company. One of them is a klutz, and the music amusingly depicts her clumsiness, as well as the swooning pas de deux of the prima ballerina and her partner.

The most moving piece here--probably 'moving' is not a word often associated with the usually insouciant Françaix--is the 4-minute, pointedly-titled 'Pavane pour un Génie vivant' ('Pavane for a Living Genius') written in 1987 and dedicated to Ravel on the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Modeled closely on Ravel's famous and well-loved 'Pavane pour une infante défunte' ('Pavane for a Dead Princess') and using an oboe theme, much slowed down, that is the opening motif of Ravel's 'Tombeau de Couperin,'--Ravel's own work of homage--this lovely work manages to tug at the heartstrings while causing one to marvel at the craft and skill involved in this deeply felt tribute to two of Françaix's musical predecessors.

Thierry Fischer, the accomplished Swiss-French conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, conducts with much finesse and nuance, and his orchestra--surely becoming one of the 'majors' of the recording industry--repay him with adroit and silken playing.

Strongly recommended. And with a recommendation that you seek out other recordings of Françaix's music whose music, sometimes disparaged as 'slight,' never fails to please. I'm particularly fond of an issue on Wergo entitle 'Musique pour faire plaisir' ('Music to give you pleasure') and another with the harpsichord concerto. He also wrote a wonderful, much more serious oratorio called 'L'Apocalyse selon Saint-Jean' ('The Apocalypse According to Saint John').

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Scott Morrison