Honegger : Symphony No.3, 'Liturgique' - Pacific 231 - Rugby

Album review

No matter how much you may hope they will, neither Takuo Yuasa nor the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, nor, for that matter, Arthur Honegger, ever really catch fire in this 2002 recording. Of course, Honegger performances that actually do catch fire are few and far between and fueled mostly by gallons of kerosene. This performance is fueled by Kool-Aid and it never catches fire. Honegger's "Liturgique" Symphony is a very serious work about a very serious topic, but it sounds like it's trying too hard and it winds up sounding simply sentimental and sententious. Yuasa and the New Zealand Symphony are clearly out of their league in Honegger's spiky lines and wacky rhythms. Yuasa's beat is at best eccentric and the strings' tone is at best erratic. Things get a bit better in the lighter Honegger that follows in the sense that less is at stake. How much does it matter if Honegger does not successfully create the aural illusion of a rugby match or a steam locomotive, or if Yuasa and the New Zealand Symphony accurately hit Honegger's beats and notes in creating that illusion? One may always wish to be convinced by an as yet convincing composer and one may always wish to be persuaded by an as yet unknown provincial orchestra, but it doesn't happen this time. Naxos' sound is serviceable, but not much more.
© TiVo