Yan Pascal Tortelier, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra - Lili Boulanger: Faust Et Helene, etc (1999)

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Yan Pascal Tortelier, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra - Lili Boulanger: Faust Et Helene, etc (1999)

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Lili Boulanger's setting of the 130th Psalm is a choral masterpiece. Tortelier and his forces deliver a vivid performance, recorded with tremendous presence. There is even more power in the old Markevich performance, done under Nadia Boulanger's supervision, but the superior Chandos recording makes a difference. Faust et Hélène is a somewhat immature student work (a strange qualification for music by a composer who died at 24), but it is also well performed. The remaining music represents Boulanger's visionary eloquence. This disc is highly recommended as an introduction to a great composer. After you hear it, try the Everest disc, despite the duplications. It contains Boulanger's deathbed Pie Jesu, a brief piece of such intense power that it will leave most listeners in tears.

Review by Leslie Gerber

What mysterious subterranean current is it that sparks different record companies, suddenly and simultaneously, into espousing the cause of some neglected composer? Few have been more overlooked than Lili Boulanger, overshadowed by the fame of her influential elder sister, but recognition – however belated, more than 80 years after her death – has never been more deserved. To a great extent the present disc duplicates Mark Stringer’s programme noted above (inevitably, since in her mere 24 years of life Lili’s output was limited) with first-class performances, splendidly recorded – the eloquent sombreness of D’un soir triste tugging at the heart, D’un matin de printemps deliciously airy and optimistic, Psalm 24 given tremendous attack by both orchestra and chorus (full marks for articulation of words!) and the powerful Psalm 130 worthily presented as the masterly, heartfelt work it is.
But the major work here, from every point of view, is the 30-minute cantata Faust et Helene in its first recording. No wonder that in 1913 it won the Premier Prix de Rome: the jury must have been thunderstruck by the maturity of this entry from a 19-year-old. It combines lyricism of striking beauty, rapturous fervour, emotional anguish and tense drama with, for a young composer, an astonishing sureness of touch in overall structure, freshness of invention, technical brilliance and imaginative scoring. Genius – a word not to be lightly employed – is not too strong a term. It seems to have inspired the present performers, among whom it is almost invidious to praise Bonaventura Bottone.'

Review by Lionel Salter, Gramophone

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Yan Pascal Tortelier, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra - Lili Boulanger: Faust Et Helene, etc (1999)

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Yan Pascal Tortelier, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra - Lili Boulanger: Faust Et Helene, etc (1999)

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Yan Pascal Tortelier, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra - Lili Boulanger: Faust Et Helene, etc (1999)

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