Lebrecht Weekly | Elsa Barraine’s 2 symphonies Under Elena Schwarz

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The second symphony by this unsung French composer has been included in this summer’s BBC Proms and I wanted to get familiar with it before deciding whether to go.

Barraine (1910-1999) had an eventful life. Daughter of the principal cello of the Paris Opéra, she attended the same Conservatoire class as Olivier Messiaen and won the prestigious Prix de Rome. Her first symphony is dated 1931, the second 1938. She joined the Communist Party in the late 1930s and the Résistance during the German Occupation. Post-War she taught at the Conservatoire, was an inspector at the Ministry of Culture and wrote music in praise of Vietnam and May Day. Intrigued? Moi, aussi.

The second symphony lasts seventeen minutes, in three movements. It makes confident statements for massed brass, has whimsical moments for oboe and does not dally too long over any one theme. The language is more Mahler than Messiaen, with tummy rumblings of Wagner and Magnard. Try as I might, I could not find a voice that declares itself to be Barraine. Only the finale, with a ‘je m’en fou’ kind of defiance, suggests that the composer is a Parisian of fun-loving propensities, possibly a hat-tip to her teacher Paul Dukas.

The first symphony, eight minutes longer, is undercooked. The piece I really liked on this record is a 1953 funereal reflection on Titian’s tomb, opening with the Dies irae on solo piano and developing in unexpected directions. The WDR Symphony Orchestra plays solidly under Elena Schwarz’s direction. You have to wonder why one of the well-funded French orchestras did not try this first.

I’d like to hear more of Elsa Barraine’s later work, but to describe her, as this album does, as ‘one of the most significant composers of the 20^th century’ is absurd. Barraine was, and remains, a composer in search of a voice.