Search - Charles Gounod, Patrick Gallois, Finlandia Sinfonietta :: Gounod: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

French Symphonies from the Middle of the 19th Century

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 10/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"'You were the beginning of my life as an artist. I spring from you', wrote Bizet to Gounod. This well-known tribute came to mind when I heard the first movement of Gounod's First Symphony. It is clear that Bizet's Symphony in C, written when he was seventeen -- a marvelous work in my opinion, and one that has entered the symphonic repertoire -- was modeled on Gounod's First, which preceded it by some fifteen years. Gounod was only briefly Bizet's teacher but clearly exerted a seminal influence. So, the question is, how do Gounod's symphonies stack up? The answer is that they are entirely likable, beautifully constructed and elegant in the Gallic fashion. They are not the sort of music that causes one to go into raptures about their importance, but they are witty, melodious and classically French. This is not to say there is no Germanic craft involved, although there is certainly no advance on the symphonies of, say, Mendelssohn or Schumann. Still, the slow movement of the First has a neatly made fugue. The so-called 'Scherzo' is actually an elegant minuet with a trio that, with its droning basses, comes within a hair of being a musette. The finale is vivacious and inspiriting; on closer examination one realizes that after a slow Haydnesque introduction the movement is a sonata-allegro with particularly piquant use made of the winds and trumpets. (Bizet's Symphony again comes to mind. To tell the truth, the young Bizet wrote a more distinctive work than his teacher but Gounod's First does not deserve peremptory dismissal in comparison.)



The Second Symphony is longer and a bit more serious in intent. There is a dramatic almost Beethovenian scherzo preceded by a sonata-allegro first movement and a hymnlike larghetto second movement with arching cantabile main theme. The finale is a high-spirited romp -- albeit with a minor-key glance at the drama of the scherzo -- that returns us to a world closer to that of French comic opera; although Gounod is not noted for his own comic operas, it is clear that he might have given Offenbach a run for his money had he so chosen.



The Sinfonia Finlandia is a group I was not familiar with, but they clearly are a world-class ensemble. Their founder/conductor is Patrick Gallois, the distinguished French flutist, a student of Jean-Pierre Rampal, who obviously is also a good conductor on the evidence of these performances. He has the ability to limn the delicacy and grace of Gounod's music as well as evincing the drama inherent in the Second's scherzo. Bravo!



Scott Morrison"