Albéric Magnard: Orchestral Works

Album review

Recorded in concert between 2017 and 2019, this third album by Fabrice Bollon, at the head of the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra (in Germany), where he has been the Musical Director since 2008, finishes what is the first complete recording of Albéric Magnard’s orchestral works under a single conductor. Michel Plasson, Jean-Yves Ossonce and Thomas Sanderling are among other conductors who have devoted themselves to the four symphonies by the French composer who died heroically at the beginning of the Great War in September 1914.
The final volume of this complete set contains already-known pieces from Magnard’s maturity such as his Hymne à la justice, a musical counterpart to Zola’s famous article J’accuse that defended Captain Dreyfus. Performed at the Libération de Paris under the direction of Manuel Rosenthal, it remains one of the rare works by Magnard still in the repertoire. The Chant funèbre, dedicated to the memory of his father, is considered one of his masterpieces, while the Hymne à Vénus celebrates his wife and the feminine ideal in general.
The Ouverture, Op. 10 suffers from its lack of title, despite being an incredibly strong piece with truly masterful writing. The Suite dans le style ancien dates from the beginning of Magnard’s years studying with Vincent d’Indy and is part of a sort of neoclassicism that was flourishing at the time. A pupil’s work in which one can already perceive the originality of a composer scandalously forgotten by conductors and concert organisers. © François Hudry/Qobuz