Music of Jacques Ibert led by Henry Swoboda

An early Westminster issue from 1951 with Henry Swoboda conducting a program of music by Jacques Ibert. Leading the Winterthur Symphony, Swoboda directs energetic performances of Divertissement and Capriccio and with the Vienna SO and women of the Akademie Chorus, he conducts an enjoyable Suite Elizabethaine.

This has to be one of the very first records ever to focus solely on Ibert and the program is a great window into this composer's varying styles. Swoboda, impresario, record producer, conductor was extremely adept at crafting recorded programs that were unique not to mention in some cases, premiere recordings. Though imaginative, Swoboda was not considered a great conductor but rather a competent, workaday one. However, I think that he rises above the typical assessment of his abilities on this Ibert record. This music is lively, with first class orchestral writing and its, well, all very "snappy." One cannot imagine why musicians would not like playing this fare. And, I would think that many of the musicians here were playing Ibert for the first time making the session a sense of discovery in which Swoboda rises to the occasion, much in a way we would expect from Munch, Ansermet or Monteux.

I will call your attention to the Suite Elizabethaine which is Ibert's delicious recollection of music from another time albeit with a marvelous modern twist.

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Modern French Orchestral Miniatures conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky

I've been looking for this elusive Westminster Gold lp for some time now. As my introduction to the music of  "The Six," I recall playing this over and over again during my teens. For my money, Rozhdestvensky scores a homerun in this repertoire. (I consider Satie the "father" of Les Six)

The "little" symphonies of Milhaud and the Paris Suite of Ibert are the "big" pieces on this lp. Both of these composers wrote in a similar style and both excelled at exploiting the colors of smaller ensembles. I think the interplay of strings and winds in the "little" symphonies is among the most imaginative and stimulating listening that I've ever encountered. However.....it has to be done right and when I say right, I mean the ensemble has to be listening carefully to one another in order to understand the logic behind the compositions. Milhaud's own recording with Radio Luxembourg does not come close to the dynamic that Rozhdestvensky caresses out of these exceptional musicians, the cream of the famed Leningrad Philharmonic.

This record was released by Melodiya in 1964, at the end of the Khrushchev years and the thaw that helped break (at least for a short time) the stranglehold on Soviet arts and artists. This music would have been decidedly bourgeois by Soviet standards and I'll bet that many of these musicians were seeing this fare for the first time. And, early on Rozhdestvensky's career, he was an innovator, an experimentor and a friend of the avant garde. In my opinion, the forces came together well here for an inspired recording session of terrific music.

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