Charles Koechlin - Magicien Orchestrateur (Heinz Holliger)

Information

• Claude Debussy - Khamma (arr. C. Koechlin)
• Charles Koechlin - Sur les flots lointains, Op. 130
• Gabriel Fauré - Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80 (arr. C. Koechlin)
• Franz Schubert - Fantasy in C major, Op. 15, D. 760, "Wandererfantasie" (arr. C. Koechlin)
• Emmanuel Chabrier - Bourrée fantasque (arr. C. Koechlin)

Sarah Wegener, soprano

Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra

Heinz Holliger, conductor

Date: 2012

Label: Hänssler

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Review

Hänssler’s Koechlin series alights on his orchestrations

This is the 12th volume in Hänssler Classic’s estimable series devoted to Charles Koechlin, the sixth involving Holliger as conductor. His empathy with the Frenchman’s visionary art is manifest in the earlier releases but here only five of the disc’s 77 minutes’ playing time contain music by Koechlin himself. Here the focus is on the master orchestrator of music by other hands, most famously perhaps Debussy’s ill-starred ‘légende dansée’ Khamma (1911-12, orch 1912-13). Ironically, the one original piece of his given here, Sur les flots lointains (1933) is based on a piece by a pupil of his!

The reasons for Koechlin’s work as orchestrator are many and various. In the case of Khamma, Koechlin completed the orchestration which Debussy had abandoned after 10 pages (see Robert Orledge’s Debussy and the Theatre – Cambridge: 1982 – for details). With Pélleas et Mélisande, Fauré involved his brilliant student to save himself the irksome task, although he later reorchestrated part of the concert suite given here. The reworking of Chabrier’s Bourrée fantasque was commissioned to provide a more Gallic-sounding version, while that of the Wanderer Fantasy was designed for a Balanchine ballet.

The performances by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra are beautifully poised and refined, with an audible relish for Koechlin’s instrumental magic. While Pélleas is fairly well known, Khamma and the Wanderer Fantasy are a revelation in these accounts for which Holliger takes much credit for shaping. Hänssler’s sound is splendid. Recommended.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/30/koechlin-magicien-orchestrateur-cd-review

https://www.amazon.com/Magicien-Orchestrateur-CHARLES-KOECHLIN/dp/B007N0SWQE

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Charles Koechlin (27 November 1867 – 31 December 1950) was a French composer, teacher and writer on music. Koechlin was enormously prolific. He was highly eclectic in inspiration and musical technique, and his music was distinct from his contemporaries. He was a passionate enthusiast for such diverse things as medieval music, The Jungle Book of Rudyard Kipling, Johann Sebastian Bach, film stars (especially Lilian Harvey and Ginger Rogers), traveling, stereoscopic photography and socialism. Despite his lack of worldly success, Koechlin was apparently a loved and venerated figure in French music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koechlin

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Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 in Langenthal, Switzerland) is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor. He began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel, studying composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez. Since the International Competition in Geneva in 1959 where he was awarded first prize for oboe, Holliger has become one of the world's most celebrated oboists, and many composers have written works for him. Holliger has also composed many works in a variety of media. Many of his works have been recorded for the ECM label.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Holliger

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