Landowski: Concerto for ondes Martenot - Concerto for Trumpet and Electro-acoustic Instruments

I revisited Marcel Landowski's Concerto for ondes Martenot, string orchestra and percussion and complemented it with the Concerto for Trumpet, orchestra and elecro-acoustic instuments. Although the latter was written more than twenty years later then the former (1976 and 1954, respectively), they partake very much of the same kind of atmosphere. I can imagine that this music strikes many listeners as rather dour and uninspired, but I feel it speaks eloquently to me. Landowski's themes are almost artless and mundane, but his forte is in the subtlety of his coloristic palette and in the skillfulness with which he is able to capture a mood. There is nothing that jumps out, neither the idiom's post-romantic or post-impressionistic leanings, nor its occasionally avantgardistic pretensions. His use of electro-acoustic instruments is wonderfully sensitive and eschews any kind of showmanship. Sometimes it looks like the composer deliberately wants to explore a restricted band of tonality and mood. The three movements of the Concerto for Trumpet (titled Cantiques d'un soir (Andantino), Chant pour une feuille morte (Allegro moderato) and Cortège (Andante) respectively) all assume a pensive and, as in the Concerto for ondes Martenot, almost mournful posture. That is in a way remarkable given the rather bright and martial character of the trumpet as a solo instrument. The piece is prefaced by a quote from the poet Paul Eluard: "Au bout du chagrin une fenêtre ouverte". The 1977 performance by dedicatee Maurce André and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, led by Alain Lombard, is commendable. The technical qualities of the Erato recording are sadly not in the same league.