Pierné Conducts Chabrier and Franck

Gabriel Pierné

Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937), whose compositions are being celebrated on my other blog, also was a distinguished conductor and organist. This post looks at a few of the records he made leading the Orchestre Colonne, which he conducted from 1910-32.

The recordings, dating from December 1929, pay homage to two French composers of an older generation - Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-94) and César Franck (1822-90).

For Chabrier, Pierné chose the work that is still the composer's most popular - the orchestral rhapsody España. The lively and memorable piece set off a fashion for Spanish-themed works among French composers, including Debussy (Ibéria) and Ravel (Rapsodie espagnole). (It also "inspired" Perry Como's 1956 hit, "Hot Diggity.")

Franck is represented by a contrasting work, his solemn Prelude, choral et fugue, a brief piano work here in an orchestral transcription by the conductor. Pierné was one of Franck's organ students, and later succeeded him as organist at the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris.

César Franck and Emmanuel Chabrier

The recordings, remastered from transfers on Internet Archive, were originally issued on Odéon. The transfers come from somewhat later US Decca pressings. The sound is vivid despite a relatively constricted frequency response, which tails off below 200Hz and above 4.5kHz. It does provide a good representation of the sound of the Orchestre Colonne under its distinguished conductor.

LINK

For more on Pierné as conductor, please see this post on Internet Archive by my friend Satyr. It includes Berlioz's Carnaval Romain Overture, Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite no. 1 and the Berceuse from Stravinsky's L'Oiseau de Feu (The Firebird). Pierné led the 1910 premiere of the work for the Ballets Russes.

Pierné and Grainger from Sokoloff and Cleveland

In recent years, I've devoted three posts to the work of conductor Nikolai Sokoloff, the first music director of the illustrious Cleveland Orchestra. The first was devoted to Tchaikovsky, Halvorsen, Sibelius, Borodin, Martinu and Britten, followed by Saint-Saëns and Nicolai and Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.

The music in today's post is much different, consisting of two brief but delightful pieces, Gabriel Pierné's "March of the Little Fauns" and Percy Grainger's "Shepherd's Hey," in most characterful performances. Both works were relatively new when Sokoloff and the Clevelanders took them up - the Pierné written in 1914-15 but not performed until 1923, and the Grainger dating from 1918. Sokoloff's recording is from 1928.

The Pierné piece is from his ballet Cydalise et le chèvre-pied. "Chèvre-pied" is literally translated "goat-foot," but it actually refers to a satyr. The dance we usually call the "March of the Little Fauns" in English is in French "L'École des Ægipans," with Ægipans being a type of satyr. Well, it is a march and it is an impressionist work, so "March of the Little Fauns" makes sense, I guess. Sokoloff calls it "The School of the Fauns."

Gabriel Pierné, Nikolai Sokoloff, Percy Grainger

By whatever title, it is a delightful piece, and Sokoloff and band have a great deal of fun with it, being more flexible than other performances I have heard. The entire ballet is worthwhile - I plan to transfer Jean Martinon's 1970 recording of the ballet suite for my other blog.

Percy Grainger's "Shepherd's Hey" also is very amusing. The composer collected English folk songs, and subjected this Morris dance tune to a variety of imaginative transformations. Grainger did not much care about development of the theme; he just keeps running through it with different treatments. Wit and good humor abound, and the Clevelanders make the most of the revels.

The composer scored the work for concert band, but this version includes strings. Grainger often arranged his work for various ensembles - as did others - so I am not sure who is behind this orchestration. It is highly effective, in any case.

These recordings were made in Carnegie Hall and have good if at times slightly raw sound. By 1928, Brunswick had moved on from the "Light-Ray" electrical recording process, and adopted the superior Western Electric process used by other companies. The orchestra and Sokoloff made no more recordings together after these May 1928 sessions. Their story is told in this post.

The Grainger is cleaned up from an Internet Archive needle-drop that was misidentified as the Pierné piece. The actual "March/School of the Fauns/Satyrs" is missing there, so I worked from a lossy version that sounds just fine after some ministrations. Both are presented in ambient stereo.