Saint-Saëns: Ascanio

 

In the last Naxos / Märkl collaboration of Saint-Saëns' Ballet Music I covered (BLOG), I asserted the French composer was a veritable chameleon when it came to representing other countries and time periods in his operas and stage music. So it is here in Ascanio as well.

In the case of Ascanio, Saint-Saëns takes on Greek antiquity, although the music itself for the Act III Ballet-Divertimento at hand apes the Renaissance and Baroque eras to make this happen; think Respighi in his Ancient Airs and Dances. Sure, the Bacchus and later Ensemble sequences are more Iberian flavored, plus once Cupid appears across multiple sequences, the French composer is back to his typical tender and surging Romanticisms.

The eleven parts of Ascanio are each rather short, and I appreciate this aspect. 25 minutes is more than enough for various Greek Gods and Goddesses to enter, perform their dance sequence, and go about their business. Any more and Saint-Saëns would have overstayed his welcome. And that is without sitting through five Acts of opera surrounding it!

I should mention this recording includes two alternate versions from small pieces of Ascanio's Act III ballet, ones which give the flute even more solo derring-do. Too bad the physical media does not honor the solo flute player with a mention in print.

Aside from Ascanio, the rest of the program is made up of opera Overtures and Entr’actes . Only two of them are particularly exotic sounding - the castanets give away the Spanish influence in La Jota Argonese, while La Princess Jaune takes on the pentatonic musical virtues of Japan, even if the introduction reminds me more of North Africa and the Middle East than anything from the Far East. I love the close placement of the harp here, giving the music an otherworldly quality.

What is left are some rather tense Romantic Era overtures. Andromaque's Greek tragedy sounds turgid, yet I quite enjoy the  serious Act IV Prelude religieuse-style musical setting. At 15 minutes, the Prologue to Les Barbares is nearly a full-blown symphonic poem, for it gathers from a significantly long portion across the start of the opera. I almost wish one of these more serious overtures were placed between La Princess Jaune and the oddly titled Overture from an Incomplete Comic Opera. The two are simply too jollily similar to one another to be truly effective listening to them back to back.

While the main feast of Ascanio is rare to hear, it certainly isn't absent on record. Guillaume Tourniaire recorded both the entire opera as well as a separate outing of just the ballet sequence. The latter comes with other Saint-Saëns operatic ballet sequences on the Melba label, quite similar to that of the aforementioned Naxos volume at the top.

Yet, Jun Märkl has come up with a rather rare program too. The only work I have seen on record before is La Princess Jaune, most recently from Neeme Järvi on Chandos, where it is performed quite a bit faster at that. Here, Märkl has the Malmö Symphony Orchestra of Sweden playing their very best, even if the German conductor is not quite as impulsive or wild as either Järvi or Tourniaire in the music of Saint-Saëns.

Comparisons aside, this continues to be a great series from Jun Märkl. I am consistently entertained by the orchestral stage music of Saint-Saëns, who provides a wealth of melodic content and instrumental color, not to mention musical craftsmanship. Each of Märkl's European orchestras give their very finest as well.

 

 

 

Works
Ascanio (29.03)
The Barbarians: Overture (14.25)
La Jota Argonese: Overture (4.09)
Andromaque: Overture & Prelude (13.29)
The Yellow Princess (6.26)
Overture to an Incomplete Comic Opera (5.39)

Ensembles
Malmö Symphony Orchestra
Jun Märkl, conductor

Label: Naxos
Year: 2019
Total Timing: 73.38

 

 

 

I enjoyed this recording quite a bit, but not as much as the later volume I linked at the top of this blog post.

Yet, to hear these stage music rarities from Saint-Saëns is a continuing pleasure. Seek it out!

Find more Saint-Saëns recordings HERE!