Ensemble Appassionato/Mathieu Herzog
Appassionato APP001 57:12 mins
This is the first recording by the orchestral ensemble Appassionato, their aim being to unearth 20th-century works which have, in the estimation of their directors, been unfairly neglected. A laudable intention, but there’s always the possibility that neglect may sometimes have had right on its side.
The unknown quantity here is the three-movement work Journal de Bord, composed in 1927 by Jean Cras, a vice-admiral in the French navy. The music acts as a response to the different characters of the three night-time watches from 8pm to 8am, and while I would like to have been able to distinguish what those characters are, I had no desire to hear any of it again. The overuse of repetition obliterates inspiration: there are no tunes, merely short phrases leading nowhere.
Although L’Apprenti sorcier is dragged unconvincingly into a message about the sea and our duty towards it, what delight there is in this beautifully constructed piece with its unforgettable tune and sparkling orchestration. In La mer, balance is at times a problem (in the third movement, for instance, the cornets’ high shriek after figure 51, which should be a terrifying climax, is drowned by the strings), but otherwise the performance is acceptable.