A reed trio combines three instruments whose timbre is similar but subtly different; this encourages gifted composers – and particularly those with a penchant for timbral finesses – to explore the variety of nuances it can produce. In this ensemble, the three woodwinds’ interaction highlights their kinship as well as their unique personalities. They have in common the variety of sound, ranging from deep expressiveness to agility and virtuosity; in consequence, this ensemble expresses both an ironic, playful and good-humoured style, and one characterized by lyricism. At the same time, this ensemble requires great skill of the composer, given the absolute transparency of the counterpoint it produces.
All of these qualities – mastery of the compositional techniques, irony, agility, clarity, expressiveness, timbral exploration – are typical for all composers recorded in this programme, which offers us a fascinating itinerary through the output of French music for reed Trio in the twentieth century.
The programme opens with a work by Jean Françaix. Born in Le Mans, France, he received his education in a family of professional musicians, who encouraged him to develop his talent and gave him the instruments for doing so. He had also the chance of studying with one of the greatest musicians and pedagogues of contemporaneous France, Nadia Boulanger, who was particularly proud of her student. Françaix’ style is unique, and yet very much rooted in the French tradition, which he represents very efficaciously through his adoption of a nonchalant, light-hearted, joyful style, though not in the least devoid of profundity and of great elegance. His interest in winds and their potential was constant, and he greatly profited from the presence, in Paris, of a reed trio, the Trio d’anches de Paris, founded in 1927 by bassoonist Fernand Oubradous and composed also by Myrtil Morel (oboe) and Pierre Lefebvre (clarinet). Perhaps due to Oubradous’ exceptional skills, the bassoon part of Françaix’ Trio is extremely challenging, though it never loses the impression of divertissement which characterizes the composer so deeply. Indeed, the title (Divertissement) of the piece recorded here closely corresponds to one of Françaix’ main aesthetical choices, and to one which refers us back to the Classical Divertimento tradition (such as it was represented by Mozart’s Trio-Divertimenti KV 439B). In spite of this, lyrical passages are not missing, particularly in the rhapsodic and backward-looking Prelude and in the Elegie. By way of contrast, the second movement and the concluding Scherzo provide some kind of comic relief, while presenting arduous difficulties to the players. Françaix recalls the composition of this Trio as follows: “[In 1947] I composed a ‘Reed Trio’ (a divertissement for oboe, clarinet and bassoon) which was quite an undertaking: the smaller the ‘Aeolian consort,’ the greater the danger of squeezing all the breath out of ones long-suffering performers by expecting them to play impossibly long musical phrases. Dear listeners, I know you may begin to doze off if a piece goes on too long, but my wish is that you should follow the example of the wise virgins and keep awake during my Trio”.
Françaix’ irony does not diminish the beauty of his music, which demonstrates, among other virtues, the composer’s absolute mastery of the wind instruments’ technique: this corresponds to his fondness for these instruments, leading him to write probably the largest repertoire for winds authored by a single twentieth-century composer of repute.
Georges Auric’s Trio dates from about a decade earlier than Françaix’ Divertissement. Yet, the style of the two works has many points in contact – and this despite the fact that their composition dates “frame” the horrors of World War II. Different from Françaix, Auric belonged in the Six, along with Poulenc, Milhaud, Honegger, Tailleferre etc.
Auric had been an exceptionally gifted child prodigy, whose works were performed even before his sixteenth birthday, and whose output was already remarkable – in terms of quantity and quality – at that time. Later he completed his education at the Conservatoire of Paris, and he finished his training under the guidance of two of the major French musicians of the era, i.e. Vincent d’Indy and Albert Roussel, who praised him as “the Rimbaud of music”. He would cooperate on several occasions with Jacques Cocteau for projects of interdisciplinary artistry.
His Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon is a typical example of his style and of his aesthetical perspective. Articulated into three movements, it embodies the cheerful and playful atmosphere found in several of Auric’s works. Décidé, the opening piece, where the lead is taken by the clarinet, is ebullient with lively tunes; it is written in something akin to a Sonata allegro form, even though the sphere belonging to the first theme is disproportionately long in comparison with that of the second theme. The second movement is a touching and highly decorated Romance, which makes full use of the instruments’ lyrical potential and of their ornamenting skills. In the piquant Finale, Auric manages to combine several genres and forms: a set of variations, a waltz and a rondeau.
The fundamental contribution to the repertoire of reed trio provided by the Trio d’anches founded by Oubradous cannot be overestimated. Also in the case of Jacques Ibert, the availability of such an excellent ensemble proved stimulating for the composer. Ibert was born in Paris in 1890, and obtained many First Prizes at the Conservatory of Paris at a very young age, before winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1919 (which came after a decoration for his service during World War I). He would maintain an important tie with Rome, where he would be the director of the Académie Française from 1937 to 1960, with the only exception of the war years, due to his political stances.
His Cinq pieces en trio are five miniatures, where the two even-numbered slower movements are framed by the odd-numbered Allegros. Each of the five movements is clearly characterized, and provides for pleasant listening thanks to their catchy tunes, which are perfectly tailored onto the idiosyncrasies of the three instruments. The first movement is in a march tempo, with a pleasant cheerfulness. After the second movement’s cogitabund tones, the third revitalizes the Baroque and Classical dance of the Minuet, and includes a delightful passage imitating the cuckoo. Once more, the slower paced fourth movement provides for some kind of respite, whilst the concluding movement resumes the first’s martial atmosphere while tempering it with memories of folk music. These Five Pieces successfully alternate a humorous vein with tenderness, and fondly cite the atmosphere of a lost Classicism.
Baroque reminiscences also populate the Suite pour Trio d’Anches written by Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986). A Polish Jew, born in Warsaw, he completed his musical education in his home country, but found both his expressive vein and the recognition he deserved in the Ville Lumière, where he settled in 1919. He was close to Igor Stravinsky, whose influence is clearly discernible in Tansman’s own music – as happens also with the Trio recorded here, whose rhythmical drive owes much to the Russian composer’s approach.
Tansman integrated himself perfectly within the French capital’s musical elite, and within its society – so much so that he earned French citizenship. In spite of this, he was forced to flee his country of election in 1938, due to the persecution against the Jews; he emigrated to the USA thanks to the influence of Charlie Chaplin. After the war, however, he was back to Paris, where he lived until his death.
His Suite for Wind Trio dates back to the first years after the War. It is perhaps for this reason (i.e. in response to the utmost “disorder” of War) that it explores the order and clarity of the structures of Baroque music, borrowing the Trio Sonata’s form (four movements alternating slow and fast) and the precise articulation of eighteenth-century wind music.
More than mere allusions to the Baroque are also found in Milhaud’s Suite d’après Corrette. At a time when musical historicism was still in its cradle, everything that sounded “old” could be applied to antiquity. Thus, Milhaud decided to rework and arrange some pieces by eighteenth-century French composer Michel Corrette and to turn them into incidental music for a performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in French – as part of a series of three Shakespearean productions, also including Julius Ceasar and Macbeth. The score for reed trio was performed, once more, by the Trio d’Anches; shortly after, Milhaud transformed this incidental music into a Suite, in which form it is presented here. The occasional roughness and the provocative musical gestures inserted by Milhaud into the otherwise polite and elegant music by Corrette (including, here again, a brusquer rendition of a cuckoo imitation) represent the fingerprint of Milhaud’s belonging in The Six.
This album also includes the Concert Champêtre by Henri Tomasi, written in 1938 and conceived, once more, for the legendary Trio d’Anches. Here too we find some traits which underwrite several of the works recorded on this CD: the short duration of its five movements, the Baroque inspiration – with a modernizing approach – and the allusions to folk music.
Tomasi’s family was from Corsica, and he proudly upheld his ancestry in his music. In his Concert, inspired by the “concentus” approach (making music together) rather than by the “certamen” (the soloist’s struggle against the orchestra), we find once more a Tambourin, as in Milhaud’s work, allowing us to compare the two musicians’ different styles and what they shared.
Together, the pieces recorded here offer us a thorough panorama on how the same musical ensemble (i.e. the reed trio) in a similar setting (i.e. France in the twentieth century) and with similar aesthetical approaches (Neoclassicism) could give life to a variety of musical styles, which are still unified by a shared perspective. 7
Chiara Bertoglio © 2022
20th Century French Reed Trios
