Barraine
Symphonies Nos 1 & 2, Song-Koï, Les Tziganes
Orchestre National de France/Cristian Mǎcelaru
Warner 5021732555199 66:31 mins
Elsa Barraine (1910-99) might not yet be a familiar name to most, but after hearing this album, I’d wager that you’ll remember her.
The Orchestre National de France and conductor Christian Mǎcelaru aren’t the first to champion the French composer’s forgotten music – in fact, she’s having a bit of a moment with an impressive account of her symphonies out on the CPO label last year, and a Proms premiere for the Second Symphony by the BBC Philharmonic last summer – but in these punchy performances they make a powerful case for her orchestral prowess.
Not only does the album include the two symphonies, but it opens with Le Fleuve rouge, an eight-part set of orchestral variations depicting the journey of the Sông Cái river, flowing from China to Vietnam. It’s a fascinating work: taut, sombre and inspiring, opening with a mysterious theme that ebbs and flows as the river travels from source to sea.
It shares the interest in Eastern spiritualism of Dukas (one of Barraine’s teachers), the atmospheric acuity of Britten and the military bite of Shostakovich – while the title’s reference to the red river could well have symbolised Barraine’s political allegiances. She joined the French Communist party in 1938, the same year she wrote her Second Symphony, titled ‘Voïna’, the transliteration of the Russian word for ‘war’.
This is a fierce, angular work – fuelled by the same conviction, perhaps, that saw her join the French resistance in 1941 and co-found the Front National des Musiciens. Barraine channels a similar energy into her grimacing, furious, mournful earlier First Symphony. Here is a composer who compellingly captures the serious undercurrents of her historical moment. But we end on a moment of colour, with Les Tziganes (The Gypsies).
