Page 41 - BBC Music (January 2020)

The Saudades proclaim the Cocteau message of
simplicity, their hummable melodies enlivened
by South American rhythms and spiced with
wrong notes – but not too many to cause alarm.
The final exotic influence on Milhaud was jazz.
His first taste of it came from black musicians
in London, but in 1922 he and a friend heard it
in its native Harlem: ‘the snobs and aesthetes
had not yet discovered Harlem: we were the only
whites there. The music I heard there, absolutely
different from what I knew, was a real revelation
for me.’ Under this impact he wrote what many
Grand ensemble: Cocteau at
consider his masterpiece, the ballet La Création the piano with (left to right)
du monde, premiered in 1923. If the magical, Milhaud, Auric, Honegger,
bittersweet world of the opening saxophone solo Tailleferre, Poulenc and Durey
can’t exactly be classed as cheering-up music, the
toe-tapping, blue-note fugue and its subsequent
development certainly can; the ending, with the Best of The Six works show Honegger at his most
inventive and energetic.
saxophone whispering a C-sharp against a D The French group’s finest music
major chord on strings, is pure genius. Auric Les Fâcheux and La Pastorale Milhaud La Création
The three composers mentioned above were Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern du monde and Le
Boeuf sur le toit
the core of Les Six. Auric had his time in the German Radio Philharmonic/Poppen Tomoko Makuuchi
sun through the three ballets commissioned (Hänssler HAEN93265) (soprano), Jian Zhao
from him in the 1920s by Diaghilev. Thereafter, Auric’s ballets, written in the 1920s (mezzo), Mathias
following the critical mauling of his 1932 Piano for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, lend Vidal (tenor), Bernard Deletré
Sonata, he concentrated on film music, making new twists to ancient formulas. (bass), Orchestre National de Lille-
a fortune out of his contribution to the 1952 Durey Mélodies Région Nord/Casadesus
film Moulin Rouge, starring Zsa-Zsa Gabor. François Le Roux (Naxos 8.557287)
Tailleferre’s adherence to the ideals of the (baritone), Graham Milhaud turns jazz and South
Johnson (piano) American popular tunes into music
group was short-lived and, apart from a brief
experiment with serialism, her music adhered (Hyperion CDA67257) worthy of any concert hall.
Durey’s songs
very much to the graceful, charming tradition Poulenc Les Biches and Stabat Mater
include settings of Apollinaire’s Marlis Petersen (soprano),
the group claimed to supplant. Modestly, she Le Bestiaire, also set at the same
placed herself ‘among the little masters of the time by Poulenc. Stuttgart Southwest Radio
Vocal Ensemble, Stuttgart Radio
17th and 18th centuries’. But even she couldn’t Honegger Symphonies Nos 1-5, Symphony Orchestra/Denève
deny the popularity of her 1923 ballet Marchand Pacific 231 and Rugby (Hänssler HAEN93297)
d’oiseaux which, as Auric pointed out, attracted Bavarian Radio Symphony/Dutoit Poulenc at 24 mastering grace and
‘not just the élite and the snobs, but the great (Apex 2564626872) frivolity, and at 52 penning a lament
Paris public. That’s real success.’ Durey’s Covering over 30 years, these for a departed friend.
allegiance was even briefer, since he parted Tailleferre Ballade
company with his colleagues as early as 1921 over Florian Uhlig (piano),
their joint venture Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel and Saarbrücken and
the rude comments they were currently making Kaiserslautern
about Ravel, his friend and mentor. German Radio
This ballet, premiered by the Ballets suédois in Phil/González
(SWR Music SWR19027CD)
June 1921, is the collaborative summit of Durey’s
This work’s virtuoso solo piano
five colleagues and their nose-thumbing at the
part helps position it in a more
musical Establishment (audience cries of ‘Give us
traditional French category.
our money back!’). Fairground tunes, sparkling
orchestration, crazy plot by Cocteau (a lion jumps Auric, Honegger, Milhaud, Poulenc,
Tailleferre Les Mariés de la Tour
out of a camera and eats a general), pastiche Eiffel and L’Éventail de Jeanne
(the funeral march is based on the waltz from Philharmonia/Geoffrey Simon
Gounod’s Faust), it has it all. ‘Of the many artistic (Chandos CHAN 10290X)
conspiracies I’ve been involved in,’ said Cocteau
GETTY, ALAMY years later, ‘this is the only one that hasn’t aged. Complete cycle: dancer Serge Lifar in After Les Mariés, L’Éventail is a
slightly less crazy work by three of
Why? Because we made no concessions.’
Les Six and five other composers.
Auric’s ballet La Pastorale in London, 1926

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 43