Arthur Honegger's song output falls into two distinct periods. The first spans his apprentice years from 1914 - the date of the first of the 4 Poemes H.7 - to 1924. He returned to art song on the eve of the Second World War, and Eleni-Lydia Stamellou sings two further sets of songs originally conceived as film accompaniments. In the 4 Poems there is a Debussyan turn to the harmony which mirrors the symbolist flavour of the text. More distinct from the model of Debussy is the album's title track, 'Petite Chapelle', with it's avowedly spiritual character. Honegger conceived his 3 Poemes de Paul Fort in the autumn of 1916. Here the relationship between music and text is more directly illustrative, as in the distant hunting horns to accompany the hunter lost in the forest. From February 1917, Nature morte stands alone as a musical still-life, a brief sketch of a bowl of peaches and white grapes. No less epigrammatic, but more musically adventurous as befitting the text, are Honegger's settings of the 6 Poemes d'Apollinaire which he composed between August 1915 and March 1917. But, for all Apollinaire's influence over the composers of 'Les Six' - Honegger included - Jean Cocteau was far more instrumental in determining their aesthetic aims. And though it was Apollinaire who had coined sur-realisme in response to seeing the premiere of Satie's ballet Parade in 1917, this new, mischievous spirit courses through Honegger's deft settings of Cocteau. Honegger makes a sincere tribute to one of France's most celebrated Renaissance-era poets in the Chanson de Ronsard from February 1924. From 1926, the 3 Chansons de La Petite Sirene feature whole-tone rising harmonies in the opening song, and the even briefer companions uphold a Satie-like inscrutability. At this point, Honegger continued in vocal music (operas, operettas and oratorio) but left song alone. However, in 1937, his soundtrack to Jean Choux 'talkie' remake of Louis Mercanton's 1920 silent film Miarka, la fille � l'ourse afforded an opportunity to write two brief songs. Eleni Lydia Stamellou's recital closes with another pair of songs written for the cinema, the Romances sentimentales for Un seul amour, a story by Balzac very loosely adapted for the screen by Pierre Blanchar. In a genre all their own are the settings of 3 Psaumes, which Honegger composed in occupied Paris over the winter of 1940/1. The sound of the organ underpins the Bachian flow accompanying Psalm 34 and the misty F minor chords beneath Psalm 140, even if the vocal line itself harks back to Honegger's song-writing of the 1920s. Other information: - Recorded April-December 2024 in St Petersburg, Russia - Booklet in English contains liner notes by Peter Quantrill and profiles of the musicians - Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) was a Swiss composer associated with the French musical movement Les Six. Known for his eclectic style, he blended elements of French impressionism, German romanticism, and modernist techniques. While Honegger is best known for his orchestral works, such as Pacific 231 and Jeanne d'Arc au b�cher, his vocal compositions show a more intimate and lyrical side of his artistry. - Honegger's songs reflect his deep sensitivity to poetry and text, setting works by prominent French poets like Paul Fort and Jean Cocteau. His melodies for voice and piano exhibit rich harmonic textures and expressive phrasing, demonstrating both refinement and emotional depth. Unlike his orchestral pieces, which can be complex and rhythmically driven, his songs favor clarity and directness, allowing the poetry to shine through. - Greek soprano Eleni Lydia Stamellou was Prize Winner at the Ferruccio Tagliavini Competition in Austria, with Dame Joan Sutherland as the president of the jury. She subsequently attended masterclasses given by Teresa Berganza, Edda Moser and Christa Ludwig. She sang in opera productions with MusicAeterna conducted by Teodor Currentzis. Her specialization is Renaissance/Baroque and Contemporary Music. She sang in productions of Berio and Hersant.

Gripping, highly emotional interpretations of the symphonies of one of the most famous and important composers of the 20th century.

This is the Japanese RCA Munch Edition reissue of these superb performances, now available "on-demand" from Arkivmusic.com. Although the sound is mono, it's very good mono, and a touch more vivid than the domestic RCA productions--the Honegger symphonies in this case originally came coupled with works by Milhaud. The only technical issue stems from the fact that, perhaps in an effort to cut down on ambient noise, the opening notes of the music are very slightly clipped (most noticeable at the start of the Fifth Symphony). I checked this against the original Japanese release and it's not a function of the disc's on-demand provenance. The performances themselves are legendary: there is no better version of the two Honegger works (though Karajan's Symphony No. 2 is just as good, albeit in a very different way), and Munch's Roussel ranks with the best. A classic, and self-recommending.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

QUATRE POEMES, H.7 TRIOIS POE

HONEGGER: SYMPHONIES NOS 2 & 5

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Arthur Honegger’s seven-part La Danse des Morts, the music of which he composed to words by the French dramatist and poet Paul Claudel who he’d previously collaborated with for the oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, forms a sort of huge “ascension”: the first four parts provide the human basis, God replies in Part Five, followed by Faith in the Cross and the Lord’s promise to the children of Israel (Affirmation). Two earlier orchestral works, the Pastorale d’eté (1920) and the Nocturne (1936), complete the disc. Henri Vachey conducts Le jeune orchestre symphonique de Douai.

Trotschel / Fischer / Ludwig / Schneider / Fricsay / RIAS Symphonie Orchester.

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St�phane Den�ve, Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) leads his orchestra on this recording in interpretations of the music of French composer Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), works that count among Honegger's best known, including his Second and Third (the 'Liturgique') Symphonies, Rugby and Pacific 231, the latter two works brief bursts of considerable energy and impact. Honegger's mingling at the outer edges of the "Les Six" group of composers and his admiration, in this sense contradictory, of German music, including Wagner, gives his works peculiar piquancy.

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"This is the fourth production on the Sinfonieorchester Basel's in-house label, established in 2012. Renowned American conductor and pianist Dennis Russell Davies has been the orchestra's principal conductor since 2009. Honegger's Second Symphony (‘Symphonie liturgique’), completed in 1941 and premiered by Paul Sacher in 1942, follows the dramatic and emotional symphonic tradition of Beethoven, but in its form and spirit, hues towards the style of Haydn or Mozart."