Frank Martin (1890-1974)
Concerto for 7 wind instruments, timpani, percussion & string orchestra;
Etudes for string orchestra;
Petite Symphonie concertante;
Passacaglia for string orchestra;*
Concerto for violin and orchestra;
In terra pax Oratorio for 5 soloists & double chorus.

Wolfgang Schneiderhan, violin;
Ursula Buckel, soprano;
Marga Hoeffgen, contralto;
Ernst Haefliger, tenor;
Pierre Mollet, baritone;
Jakob Staempfli, bass;
Union Chorale & Choeur des Dames de Lausanne
(Chorus master: Robert Mermoud)
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra*
Karl Muenchinger*
L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Ernest Ansermet
Double Decca: 448 264-2

Summary for the busy executive:  This so-called review, from a totally
inadequate non-reviewer is going to be very short anyway.  You may as well
read the lot or delete the lot!  Besides, having read all the credits
you've already made significant progress through this posting.

The Swiss composer Frank Martin passed his time as a composer,
theoretician and educator.  He was himself taught solely by one Joseph
Lauber.  It was his fate, BTW, to be the tenth child of a Calvinist
minister and not to study at any Conservatoire.  J.S.  Bach was one of
his earliest enthusiasms and influences.  After meeting Ernest Ansermet
in 1918, he became interested in the French composers Debussy and Ravel.
He also began to explore Schoenberg, Indian and Eastern European folk
idioms, jazz, and some Spanish styles.

Martin did not find composition an easy occupation, though the difficulties
he experienced do not seem apparent at all in any of the music presented
here.

This music does not hold any hidden terrors of Musical Language for anyone
who can appreciate the music of his contemporaries e.g.  Poulenc; Honegger;
Kodaly; Bartok; Prokofiev; Shostakovich; Holst; Vaughan William; Britten;
Hoddinott; Lutoslawski; Mantovani; Holmboe; Nielsen; Ruders; Tippett;
Szymanowski and a multitude of other contemporary Europeans.  Besides, if
it's good enough for Ernest Ansermet and Paul Sacher, then it's probably
good enough for the rest of us.

I refrain from commenting upon the actual quality of the performances,
because I fear that my ears are too ordinary and too crude to pick up the
meanest of human errors in musical endeavour.  After all, I am but a simple
Debt Collector and not a Musician.

Geoffrey Gaskell [log in to unmask]
http://freeweb.digiweb.com/music/Gustav_Mahler