Imagine
Mahler without the angst and Scriabin without the sex and you'll have some idea what to expect from the orchestral music of Albéric Magnard (1866-1914). Like those two composers, the French fin-de-siècle composer's heroic themes, lush textures, and highly chromatic harmonies are clearly indebted to Wagner, but Magnard's uncompromising idealism has little to do with Wagner's pessimism, and his unyielding austerity has nothing to do with the German composer's unstoppable prolixity. In this disc containing five rarely played or recorded orchestral works, performed by
Mark Stringer and the
Orchestra Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Magnard's singular gifts are all on display. In the Suite dans le style ancien (composed 1888 and revised in 1890) and the Ouverture (begun in 1894 and completed in 1895), he shows his talent for infusing forms from the past with his own distinctive musical personality. But in the three main works here -- the Chant funèbre from 1895, the Hymne à la justice from 1902, and the Hymne à Venus from 1904 -- Magnard shows himself to be a highly individualistic composer of powerful music with enormous emotional impact. In these excellent performances,
Stringer and the
Luxembourg orchestra deliver a harrowing yet noble Chant funèbre, a searing and triumphant Hymne à la justice, and a heartmeltingly lovely Hymne à Venus. The orchestra could do with a bit more strength in the climaxes and a tad more ensemble cogency in the knottier passages, but given the music's tremendous difficulty and unfamiliarity, that is only to be expected. Recorded in colorful but not especially clear sound, this disc deserves to be heard by all Magnard aficionados and fans of fin-de-siècle music.