Capitole de Toulouse, 08/03/2016

Honegger : Le roi David

Laurent Collombert,  speaker
Magali Léger, soprano
Marie Virot, mezzo-soprano
Alfredo Poesina, tenor

Choeur et Maîtrise du Capitole
Members of the Orchestre du Capitole
Alfonso Caiani

Honegger's King David started out as incidental music to a play by the Swiss author René Morax.  As the piece was a resounding success, Honegger soon adapted his music into oratorio form, with a speaker providing the narrative (still in Morax's words), and a slightly expanded orchestra.  First performed in 1923, this version is still in the Continental choral repertory, and marks the revival of the oratorio form for the 20th Century, particularly in this dramatic form, spawning numerous successors and imitations, such as Honegger's own Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, Frank Martin's Golgotha, or, most memorably perhaps, Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.

The most interesting facet of tonight's performance was that it was given with the original, 17-piece, pit band orchestration, which I had not heard before.  When Honegger re-structured the piece, the primary difference was that he replaced the piano and harmonium with a medium-sized contingent of strings, and added an organ and a harp.  The resultant sound is, of course,  much richer, but the smaller formation certainly has its positive points too, notably in the way the wind instruments stand out.  The players from the Orchestre du Capitole - many of their younger members, from the looks of them - played very well, aside from a couple of early 'warming-up' fluffs in the brass, with the kind of inner cohesion you expect from a chamber group, and a real sense of enjoyment and pleasure in the music they were performing.

The problem, unfortunately, was the chorus.  Not that the singing was bad, it was just - timid.  This chorus is that of the opera company of the Capitole, and as such, it is actually quite competent.  They are also accustomed to being called upon by the orchestra during their concert seasons, for whatever choral works are programmed.  I've not heard one of those concerts, though, and if this is the kind of performance they usually give away from the operatic stage, then there's some work to be done that is not being addressed by tonight's conductor, who is also the chorus's Music Director.

I have high expectations of choral singing - Britain has an outstanding tradition, which is evident in just about every musical institution of the country.  In France, whatever choral tradition the country possessed was pretty much obliterated by the French Revolution, with the closure of the churches and the disbanding of church choirs.  Nowadays, almost all choruses performing for the main institutions are constituted of professional singers.  Most of the orchestras (particularly the provincial ones) tend to borrow the local opera company chorus, as they do in Toulouse.  The national radio has a couple of choruses of its own (of excellent standard), and there are several others, also professional, such as Accentus, justly renowned.  Nevertheless, the results in concert, such as tonight, often do not compare with what you can hear in our concert halls, where opera and "symphony" choruses are very distinct entities, with the latter being almost systematically comprised of amateur singers, who have often come to choral singing from an early age via church and school choirs.

It seems irrational that amateurs can perform better than professionals, but the evidence is there.  The Capitole chorus lacked the courage of its conviction in this music, and the fire of Honneger's inspiration was dimmed by correct but uninspired singing.  The mezzo and tenor soloists came from the chorus, without any great distinction, but the soprano was not a great deal more interesting.  The narrator, Laurent Collombert, gave a good, crisp reading, with a fluid, modern delivery that was refreshing to me, as I've mostly heard recordings from about half-a-century ago, with an accordingly formal, old-fashioned style.  It would have been nice if the chorus could have copied his example to bring some luminosity and intensity to their performance.

[Next : 17th March]