Jean Françaix - Le roi nu; Les demoiselles de la nuit (Thierry Fischer)

Information

Composer: Jean Françaix

• (01) Le roi nu
• (13) Les demoiselles de la nuit

Ulster Orchestra

Thierry Fischer, conductor

Date: 2005

Label: Hyperion

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67489

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Review

Jean Françaix’s music divides opinion, and he’s certainly not the composer who comes to mind for emotional intensity or depth. But ballet music is a different thing, and he as much as anyone was surely suited for it.

He composed nine ballets in all, of which Thierry Fisher and the Ulster Orchestra have already given us Les Malheurs de Sophie in an earlier collection. Reviewing that (5/04), Roger Nichols rather got Françaix out of his system, complaining that after about three minutes of pretty well any Françaix work his mind started drifting. Well, don’t try so hard! Allow the music to wash over, and enjoy what Calum Macdonald’s insert-note rightly describes as the music’s ‘amiable unpretentiousness’, its attractive wisps of melody and spunky orchestration serving to keep the listener engaged.

Of the two works here, Le roi nu (‘The naked king’, 1936) was based by Serge Lifar on Hans Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes and was Françaix’s fourth ballet score. Les demoiselles de la nuit (‘The ladies of the night’, 1948), with a scenario by Jean Anouilh, was his fifth – a ‘cat ballet’ that was thus something of a precursor of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical. The former is the more upbeat, the latter altogether moodier, with moments of romance and tenderness. Both are witty and humorous, displaying (to quote Macdonald again) Françaix’s ‘ability to say just what needs to be said, no more, no less, in just as many notes as it takes to say it’. The playing throughout is sensitive and fully attentive to the varied rhythms, while the sound is clear and bright, bringing out Françaix’s imaginative writing for individual instruments, especially the woodwind. The CD will not change opinions of Françaix; but it will surely suit those who already appreciate his style.

-- Andrew Lamb, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Dec06/Francaix_Fischer_CDA67489.htm

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/mar/18/classicalmusicandopera.shopping3

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/h/hyp67489b.php

https://www.amazon.com/Roi-Nu-Demoiselles-Nuit-roi/dp/B0007NLHMU

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Jean Françaix (23 May 1912, in Le Mans – 25 September 1997, in Paris) was a French composer and pianist. He studied at the Conservatoires in Le Mans and Paris, and was considered one of the best students of Nadia Boulanger. Although an accomplished pianist and often played his own works, Françaix's primary occupation was his extraordinarily active compositional career. He remained prolific throughout his life, writing over 200 pieces in a wide variety of styles. Françaix wrote pieces in many of the major large musical forms, including concerti, symphonies, opera, ballet, as well as numerous chamber works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Françaix

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Thierry Fischer (born 28 September 1957) is a Swiss orchestra conductor and flutist. He studied flute with Aurèle Nicolet and began his musical career as Principal Flute in Hamburg and at the Zurich Opera. His conducting career began in his 30s, conducting his first concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Fischer was principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra (2001-2006) and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (2006-2012). Outside of Europe, he has served as chief conductor of the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra (2008-2011) and music director of the Utah Symphony (since 2009).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Fischer
http://www.thierryfischer.com/

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