Search - Rilling, Helmuth :: Les Beatitudes

A CANTICLE FOR OUR TIME

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 12/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The history of oratorio after Handel was not a distinguished one. There was Haydn's great Creation, there was Schubert's unfinished but fascinating and forward-looking Lazarus, and then it all descended into a wretched piety-mongering, so much so that Elgar hesitated to use the title of oratorio for his own masterpieces. Franck's fine Les Beatitudes shines through the encircling gloom like a lighthouse-beam in fog, it seems to me. It looks forward in many ways to Elgar, but it owes nothing that I can discern to Handel or to Bach, being as Catholic in its inspiration as their work was Protestant. The influence of Faust on the text is glaringly obvious, but the influence of Berlioz on the music strikes me as being next to none. The poem is by a certain Mme Colomb. It is naïve, devout and fervent, but its diction is never ridiculous, as Newman's all too often is in The Dream of Gerontius, and even strictly as music Les Beatitudes is probably a better piece of work even than any of Elgar's similar creations. The anonymous liner-note writer calls it Franck's masterpiece, and I'm starting to think that he or she may be right.



I have to say that the production of the box-set could have done with a bit more trouble being taken over it. For one thing, the text is given in French only with no differentiation in the typeface between the actual poetry and the accompanying indications, although it is fairly simple French and a few minor misprints should not confuse anyone. Lack of care and revision is evident here and there too - in the second beatitude there is a soprano solo that needs mentioning, the fourth beatitude takes a full two minutes longer than stated, the eighth beatitude takes nearly twice as long as they are owning up to, and the total playing time of each disc does not add up or anywhere near it. Nevertheless the short liner-note seems to me basically sound and just in what it says, and it would have been good to be told who wrote it, just as it would have been interesting to know which of the singers is performing at certain points.



When it comes to what really matters, namely the performance itself and the quality of the sound, I can be much more positive. The balance of the solo voices is quite realistic, much as it would be in a concert performance and not highlighted artificially. Some of the soloists' names are familiar to me, others not, but they all seem to me to acquit themselves well. These are not `star' solo parts as in, say, the Verdi Requiem, and the approach taken is thoughtful, sensitive and proportionate, just as the recording balance is. Franck's orchestration is heard at its best in this work, with no suggestion of the organ in its sound, it comes across beautifully right at the start and it stays beautiful right to the end. The choral writing probably shows some influence of Wagner's and that is not a good thing, but it develops some variety as the work progresses, even if I felt a twinge of longing, in the course of the fifth beatitude, for the way a similar opposition of the forces of good and evil was Handeled by that master in his Samson. Above all I ended with a powerful feeling that this is a work that some current factions within the Christian communion could well take to heart. Mme Colomb's simple-minded denunciation of materialism may lack sophistication, but the message of the eight beatitudes, whatever the original authorship of the `sermon' in St Matthew's gospel, is not one that should give much comfort to nationalism, bigotry, self-righteousness and wilful ignorance, and even Mme Colomb can do better than that. For a work that doesn't seem to receive a great many performances, Franck's Beatitudes is surprisingly well represented by recordings, although these in their turn have not been given much in the way of reviews least of all comparative reviews. I can't offer comparative comment either, but rather than wait for that I would say that anyone wishing to take on board, for the first time or not the first, an ancient and powerful message set to deeply felt and deeply expressive music could do much worse than to acquire this set."