The Sinfonia of London had its first incarnation in the 1950s, formed as an offshoot of the LSO primarily to record film scores, though both Colin Davis and John Barbirolli made LPs with it, too. It had another brief period of existence in the 1980s, but John Wilson created the third distinct orchestra under the name in 2018. It is specifically intended as a session orchestra for recordings, and Wilson and his hand-picked band made their debut together for Chandos last year with a recording of works by Korngold.
Their follow-up is this selection of French works from the decades around the turn of the 20th century. Most of the pieces are familiar enough – Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-Midi, Chabrier’s España (though that’s not heard as often in concerts nowadays as it used to be), Massenet’s Méditation from his opera Thaïs, and Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole. But Saint-Saëns’ symphonic poem Le Rouet d’Omphale – the first in a set of four symphonic poems on mythological subjects that also includes the famous Danse Macabre – is certainly not well-known, and neither are the works here by Maurice Duruflé and Jacques Ibert. Duruflé is best remembered now for his organ works and his Requiem, but the Trois Danses Op 6, from 1932, are plausibly French in mood, without revealing much influence of his teacher Dukas, while Ibert’s three Escales, inspired by journeys in Italy, north Africa and Spain, are refined 1920s exercises in impressionism.
There’s nothing particularly profound here, but all of the music requires refined, stylish playing, and Wilson and his orchestra can certainly supply that. Their performance of Debussy’s Prélude lays down an early marker of their subtlety, with a wide palette of pastel shades, but the Spanish-inspired pieces by Chabrier and Ravel, show that they have plenty of swagger when it’s needed, too.
This week’s other pick
Massenet’s interlude is also included on Belle Époque, violinist Daniel Hope’s latest double album for Deutsche Grammophon. It’s a strange compilation; the first disc, also featuring pianist Lise de la Salle and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, is framed by Chausson’s Concerto for violin, piano, and string quartet (in a string-orchestra arrangement) and Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro for strings, while the second, with pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips, is a cosmopolitan collection of lollipops from the years before the first world war; there’s Rachmaninov and Berg, Koechlin and Zemlinsky, Frank Bridge and Reynaldo Hahn – it’s all very tastefully done, if rather insubstantial.
