Ernest Reyer

[Syrelius]

Phoenix has released a triple CD of music inspired by the Orient, including this piece:

Louis Etienne Ernst REYER: The Greeting Oriental symphony in five pictures

Anyone familiar with this symphony and its composer?

[Mark Thomas]

I think this is Le Sélam which, although Reyer (1823-1909) called it an Oriental Symphony, is really more of a cantata as it is a large scale (30-40 minute long) choral work with, IIRC, a narrator too. It is clearly inspired by Felicien David's Le Désert. It's a melodic and effective work, safely exotic for Victorian audiences, and very French.

Reyer himself was primarily an opera composer. I have recently acquired recordings of his most famous work, Sigurd, a spectacular grand opera in the Meyerbeer tradition and also Salammbo, which is pretty similar. He has a gift for melody and colourful orchestration which is very appealing and I'm surprised that these three works aren't better known. Well worth exploring.

[mbhaub]

By weird coincidence, I just came across the name Reyer. I'd never heard of him before until I saw this post. Then just yesterday, I was browsing through a great used bookstore and found this 1905 book called Modern Composers of Europe. Extremely interesting. Mentions so many unknowns...and Lious Etienne Ernest Reyer (or Rey). And Mark hits all the important things: primarily an opera composer, but also a well-known writer. Might have to check him out.

[Mark Thomas]

You'll come away whistling, Martin...

[Alan Howe]

I listened to Act 1 of Sigurd today - very much French grand opera, but with a dose of Berlioz too, I thought. It is very declamatory stuff - I'm hoping Act 2 will relax a bit, but wow, it's powerful music.

[Mark Thomas]

Declamatory, yes Alan, but there's much more melody in the vocal writing than in long stretches of The Ring, for example.

[Alan Howe]

Yes, that's true, Mark. I've always thought that Wagnerians must have immense patience! Mind you, the actual compositional idiom of Wagner is so powerful, his use of the orchestra so wonderful that, when the big moments come, they are beyond anything most operatic composers can offer. Act 1 of Die Walküre in the Karajan performance, for example, is just full of magic in the orchestral performance and vocal execution...

[Syrelius]

I have just managed to get hold of a copy of the Phoenix CD. It seems to be a re-release of an old Capriccio recording.

The "symphony" does remind a bit of David's Le Desert. Though I prefer the David piece, this is an entertaining and melodious work, rather opera-like in many parts.

[Steven Eldredge]

Reyer's Sigurd has some splendid music in it. Georges Thill, the great French tenor made a magnificent recording of one of the big arias back in the early 1930s, I believe. I would love to see or hear a live performance of this opera.