Jean-Michel Damase (1928-2013)
Orchestral Works Volume 2
Double Concerto for viola, harp and strings (1990)
Double Concerto for trumpet, piano and strings (1999)
Suite in C for Chamber Orchestra (1994)
Méandres for oboe and strings (1978)
Rhapsody for flute and strings (1992)
Rhapsody for oboe and strings Op.6 (1948)
Andriy Viytevych (viola), Hugh Webb (harp), Philip Cobb (trumpet), Min-Jung Kym(piano), Gareth Hulse (oboe), Anna Noakes (flute)
BBC Concert Orchestra/Martin Yates
rec. 2021 Watford Colosseum, UK
Dutton Epoch CDLX7410 SACD [78]

This is my first encounter with the music of Jean-Michel Damase and it has been a pleasurable one.  All of the music on this generously filled disc is receiving its world premiere recording and all are given tremendously assured and convincing performances by a roster of fine soloists backed up by ever-excellent BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of rare-music specialist Martin Yates.

The innocent ear would certainly guess that Damase was French with a style that broadly belongs to that school of Gallic composers who write in a sophisticated neo-classical vein.  Perhaps more of a surprise is the musical aesthetic of these works remains pretty much unchanged from the Rhapsody of oboe and strings Op.6 written when he was just twentythrough to the Double Concerto for trumpet, piano and strings more than half a century later.  Damase was clearly something of a youthful prodigy born into a musical family.  Barely into his teens he was studying piano with Alfred Cortot, entered the Paris Conservatoire at thirteen, won the premier prix in the piano class at fifteen and the same prize in composition and the Prix de Rome before he was twenty.  A quick glance at his dates will reveal that much of this will have happened during World War II and the German occupation of France but his career continued to into the 50’s and beyond.  Given his evident talent and the appeal of his music it is not clear – or explained in the liner – quite why his music has fallen from the public gaze.  This is Dutton’s second disc devoted to his music and the first one – which I have not heard – received enthusiastic reviews which I would imagine will hold true for this one too.

The disc opens with the 1990 Double Concerto for viola, harp and strings which the liner suggests; “could be seen as unashamedly traditional; an anachronism perhaps..”  Preferring to listen to such music without any prior knowledge certainly I would not have placed it as late as 1990 but ultimately if the piece ‘works’ and communicates – which this certainly does – the date of creation is of secondary importance at best.  All of the works on this disc conform to traditional forms; three movement concerti and suite and single movement/multi sectional rhapsodies.  The combination of viola and harp is certainly unusual and the liner does not indicate if this work was written for specific artists.  Damase’s mother was a famed harpist in her time so his appreciation and understanding of writing for that elusive instrument might stem from that.  One feature of this entire disc is just how brilliantly all the solo performers play.  By definition this must have been unfamiliar music at the point they were initially approached but the resulting performances ooze authority and conviction.  Allied to that is the poise and beauty with which the respective instruments are played.  In this first concerto Andriy Viytevych’s viola sings out with ideally pure but full tone without any of the edge or effort that can define some music written for this instrument.  Likewise Hugh Webb makes light of what to the ignorant ear sounds like some complex and demanding writing for the harp.  While Damase’s style is broadly neo-classical his harmony is less acerbic and his melodies less angular than some other exponents.  The music is not ‘light’ but neither does it seek great emotional depth – serious rather than profound might be the best description.  But there is meticulousness in his solo and orchestral writing that requires from the performers effortless precision and clarity. 

The disc’s second work is another double concerto – this time for trumpet, piano and strings.  That combination is of course best-known in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.1.  Broadly speaking the Shostakovich can be considered a piano concerto with a prominent solo part for trumpet.  In this Damase concerto the balance is much more equal between the soloists with the trumpet – if anything – given the more dominant role.  This is reflected in the extended trumpet cadenza that opens the work.  I have already praised the high quality of all the solo playing here but it must be said that Philip Cobb’s trumpet is of exceptional beauty.  The liner biography notes Cobb’s family background as Salvation Army band members and this legacy is audible here where Cobb plays with a tonal warmth – aided by a hint of vibrato – and superb sense of lyrical and melodic line.  When the work needs technical display and brilliance of course Cobb provides that with impressive ease but it is the lyrical element of the work and the playing that lingers longest.  But pianist Min-Jung Kym’s contribution is just as compelling.  Notable in all the works is how well the Dutton engineers have managed the balance between the solo instruments and the orchestral group.

All of the works offered here are written for string accompaniment.  The Suite in C for Chamber Orchestra does add a small wind group of single flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn but even here the writing offers these players soloistic passages that suggest a concertante group rather than an orchestral wind section.  The same work features solos for lead violin and principal cello too – all of which are notable for the beauty of their performance.  Méandres [Meanderings] for oboe and strings is the longest single movement on the disc.  As with most of the music on this disc the mood is essentially serious although I am not sure of the significance of the title.  Yes the melodic material is sinuous and occasionally angular but to my mind meandering suggests something more formless than this piece is.  Soloist Gareth Hulse is again excellent particularly at projecting the long, often twisting, themes.  The contrast between this 1978 work and the other oboe piece on the disc, the Rhapsody Op.6, is interesting to note.  The earlier work is the one time in this collection where, for me, there was a distinct “sounds like” moment – in that case Roussel – where motoric stabbing string chords accompany the angular oboe writing.  Méandres travels through a series of moods before fading into calm silence.  Musically this shares that sense of objective coolness that characterises much French neo-classical music.  On a purely personal level I find much to admire if less to love although I cannot imagine stronger advocates than here.

The Rhapsody for Flute and Strings was written for an International flute competition (likewise the oboe rhapsody was the test piece for the Paris Conservatoire) hence it is a work which focuses on the technical and display elements of the instrument.  Soloist Anna Noakes also played the Damase flute concerto on volume 1 of this series so she is familiar with the idiom.  Both of these rhapsodies are impressively condensed works which fill their relatively brief time frames; 9:56 – flute, 7:45 – oboe with a lot of varied musical and technical content as befits their original functions as competition pieces.

So another consistently fine disc in every respect, attractive unfamiliar music, very well played and recorded with Dutton’s typical understated sophistication.

Nick Barnard

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