Pierné: Divertissement - D'Indy: Istar

I discovered a potentially interesting dowload service in eClassical.com, ostensibly operating from Sweden. Pricing is per second so relatively short pieces can be had quite cheaply in 16-bit or 24-bit FLAC. The catalogue is still sparse, but with a selection of Chandos, BIS, BBC Legends and Da Capo albums, there is quite enough on offer.

I tried the service with two shorter pieces by turn-of-the-century French composers. d'Indy I had already come across in his Symphonie Cévenole, and it was a rather pleasant encounter. Apart from the symphony there is also Istar, op. 42, that shines in his orchestral output. I picked it from a recording that is part of a Chandos series of d'Indy's complete orchestral output. It has been quite well received by the international critique.

Istar, composed in 1896 (ten years after the Symphonie) is a short (less than 15 minutes) set of variations of which the waltzy theme appears only at the end. The orchestral writing is quite accomplished although it is not as inspired as in the Symphonie Cévenole, I find. There are some beautiful orientalising passages with delicate flowing lines for the strings but the ambience seems to be interrupted by more chattering variations given to the woodwinds. All in all the work didn't catch my imagination.

Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937) is another luminary from that same period. He was allegedly more respected as an organist (taking over the duties at St Clotilde from César Franck) and as a conductor (leading the famous Concerts Colonnes for over two decades, premiering, amongst others, Stravinksy's Firebird; Pierre Monteux was leading the viola section when Pierné took the helm of the orchestra but he would soon strike out on a fabulous international career as a conductor himself). I selected the short (11')  Divertissement sur un thème pastoral, op. 42, written in 1932 towards the end of the composer's life (he died in 1937). It's a perfectly innocuous piece, light as a soufflé and hardly making a claim to being more than symphonic trifle. Not particularly substantial enough to tempt me to dig deeper into this oeuvre.

Chandos' chocolate box-styled cover art is perfectly in tune with the musical qualities of these two pieces.