BRUNEAU
L’Attaque Du Moulin – Suite
Barcelona Symphony / DARRELL ANG
Naxos 8.573888 / ****1/2
It is likely that operatic composer
Alfred Bruneau (1857-1934), a contemporary of Puccini and Elgar, is hardly
known outside of his native France. He was credited for introducing verismo
into French opera, substituting mythical and historical characters with
modern-day personalities which contemporary audiences could better relate to.
This ground-breaking album brings together over an hour of orchestral excerpts
from his little-known and almost-forgotten operas.
A 22-minute suite comes from L’Attaque
Du Moulin (The Attack On The Mill, 1893), a “lyric drama” inspired
by a short story by Emile Zola. The highly evocative music brings to mind the
orchestral music from Italian verismo composer Pietro Mascagni’s familiar Cavalleria
Rusticana.
Even more ambitious is the ballet La Legende De L’Or (The
Legend Of Gold) from Messidor (1897), just over half an hour long,
which displays influences of the German Richard Wagner, specifically music from
his Ring cycle. Two short preludes from Messidor and Nais Micoulin
(1907) make interesting fillers.
Darrell Ang and the excellent Barcelona
Symphony give fine and idiomatic performances, for which attention to
orchestral detail is not spared. One will be hard-pressed to find better
recordings this obscure but thoroughly worthy music.
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