Ibert: Divertissement, Escales

I have some catching up to do. Over the past week I've been listening to yet another French composer whose work I am barely familiar with. I had only Jacques Ibert's Divertissement (1928) on a Chandos CD coupled with works by Milhaud and Poulenc. At the time it struck me as a fun but utterly unremarkable piece. Fun it certainly is, but it seems there is a better case to be made for this music that Yan Pascal Tortelier did on that Chandos collection (with the Ulster Orchestra).

Divertissement is a 15-minute suite of 6 numbers drawn from incidental music Ibert wrote for a farce written by Eugène Labiche (in 1851). It's an improbable story about a horse that eats a straw hat from which follows a series of burlesque tableaux culminating in complete mayhem. Ibert's suite - a raucous, nose-thumping pastiche - captures the mood perfectly. I listened first to a Dorian recording by the Dallas SO led by Eduardo Mata. The disc is part of a superb 6-CD collection ('The Eduardo Mata Years') that includes many of Mata's best recordings in colourful 20th century repertoire (Shostakovich 7 and 9, Prokofiev's Nevsky, Stravinsky's Sacre, Respighi's suites, a few American scores and, remarkably, Chausson's Symphony). All the recordings date from the early 1990s. Mata presents a finely groomed, almost phlegmatic version of the suite, an impression that is reinforced by a sophisticated, somewhat distant recording. It's as if one is safely ensconced on the 20th row of the rather splendid but empty Eugene McDermott Hall in Meyerson Symphony Centre. It's impressive enough to listen to.

But I was quite surprised to hear what Jean Martinon and his Paris Conservatory Orchestra made of it in their 1960 recording at the Maison de la Mutualité in Paris. This recording is part of the recently issued 50-CD collection 'The Decca Sound'. It's an eclectic but truly glorious selection of recordings to showcase 60 years of engineering excellence from the Decca labs. In 'Originals' fashion all the cardboard slipcases present the original LP artwork. Quite nice. Compared to the Dorian recording, the Martinon disc - featuring work by Ibert, Saint-Saens, Bizet and, as a 'bonus' his 1958 taping of Borodin's Second Symphony with the LSO - provides a totally different sonic picture. One is at the conductor's desk with the musicians arrayed closely around. In no way, however, the recording sounds boxy. There is a pleasing ambience around the instruments. I don't know whether all of these discs have been especially remastered for this collection but I wouldn't be surprised if they were. There is a fair amount of tape hiss on this one, but it's not at all unpleasant or distracting. What is striking is the fantastic liveliness, almost in an analogue fashion, of the recorded sound. The slightly nasal tonal balance reinforces this vinyl-like quality. The Divertissement is a real treat. One can hear that Martinon and his band are having a ball, yawning trumpets, barking horns and police wistle included. But there is more. I was struck by the interpretative complexity that Martinon was able to coax from these harmless pages. By no means he turns them into a Mahler Ninth. The typical French esprit remains very much in evidence. But still, the Nocturne probes unsuspected depths, the Valse pearls like champagne and the Parade vacillates between a nightly patrol and Comedy Capers. I came away refreshed and invigorated from listening to this music, likely very much how Ibert had intended it to be!

Finally there is Escales ('Ports of Call'), a work I hadn't heard before. It's a luscious suite with three colourful postcards from Mediterranean ports in Italy, Tunisia and Spain respectively. Ibert relishes in exploring the musical clichés associated to these locales - Arabian melody and castanets included. His mastery of the orchestra is a treat and Eduardo Mata is quite happy to let his players indulge in the marvelous colours and scents conjured by the score. I thought the Rome-Palerme movement was particularly captivating. A symphonic spectacular if there ever was one.