Qnt Pno/Qt Str [Import]

Since discovering the music of Jean Cras (chamber music with harp and his opera, "Polyphème") I have been eager to hear more of his blend of the musical idioms of early 20th-century France and the exoticism acquired in his voyages as a naval officer.

The String Quartet of 1909 is one of the culminating works of Cras's apprenticeship, and is not yet streaked with the exotic colors of some of his later scores. (Don't be confused by other CD's identifying it as "No.1". Like Debussy's "Première quatuor", there was never a second one.) It shares the troubled mood and chromatically strained tonalities of the Chausson and d'Indy quartets, especially in its first two movements. (Not surprising--although Cras was mainly self-taught, Duparc took him under his wing.) The following scherzo is in compound meter (6/8 or 12/8?). At any rate, the beat is divided into three. However, in the first theme Cras sometimes divides the beat into a duplet, adding further complication by dotting it, instead of the regular division into quarter-eighth rhythm one might expect. This makes the music seem to be stumbling or limping, but it's intentional, not a fault of the players (it's also tricky for the players to control--they do very well). The finale brightens to resemble the sunnier side of Franck. Toward the end, this cheerfulness is threatened, but the music recovers, and ends with a positive tone.

Commander Jean Cras was also a highly successful career officer in the French Navy. He loved the life of the sea, and for his Piano Quintet of 1922, he wrote his own program (quoted in the booklet notes) outlining the progress of a sea voyage and his joyful reactions to it. In the intervening 13 years, Cras's musical idiom had advanced. I would be surprised if he did not know the music of Joseph Jongen--he was junior to the great Belgian composer by only 6 years, and the Quintet certainly reminds me of the later Jongen, as well as Ibert, in their most carefree veins.

Cras opens with the ship's engines throbbing a pentatonic ostinato in the piano, with the strings either soaring or fluttering their pennants above. There's a definite feeling of sea wind blowing through one's hair as this music of joyful impatience and anticipation alternates with a quiet song of inward contentment. A similarly contented violin solo begins the slow movement, and rises to a climax. It is succeeded by a nasal African melody in the viola, which the other instruments accompany in the manner of an Arabian folk-music band. The scherzo betrays the composer's Breton origins in a vigorous dance. After an Arabian-sounding trio, the dance returns and then tiptoes offstage in pizzicati. As in the opening movement, the return voyage of the finale carries a feeling of elation to be again on the open sea, but now colored by pentatonic memories of the sailor's travels. One can almost hear cries of "Oh! Look at that!", as the voyagers' attention shifts from one breathtaking natural vista to another.

I really must mention TIMPANI's beautiful package designs. I've bought several of their CD's, and each is a little gem, with carefully reproduced paintings, prints, or drawings appropriate to the period of the music. (In this case, it's a print of Cras's native Breton by Henri Rivière, whose Japanese-print influenced style forms a perfect counterpart to Cras's music.) The same artwork is then reproduced on the booklet cover, which is conveniently tucked inside a slit in the double-thick cardboard sleeve. My only complaint is that if the hub of the glued-in plastic CD holder breaks (admittedly, not usual--the hubs are sturdy), it's impossible to replace or repair.

These two contrasted works would make an attractive introduction to Cras's individual style. The Quator Louvigny plays alertly and with sweet tone, and are partnered with appropriate swagger and sensitivity in the Quintet by pianist Alain Jacquon. The Quintet is particularly attractive--I've seldom heard 20th-century music of a more unaffectedly happy disposition. Warmly recommended, and there's a lot more Cras available from TIMPANI.

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