Naxos is not quite right in calling this the 'orignal version' of Honegger's
dramatic psalm, which created a sensation when it first appeared in 1921; but it does
employ the original 17-piece instrumentation (without strings except for a solitary
double-bass). The work started life as a series of 27 short numbers, for this combination
and an amateur chorus, for a staged representation of the biblical story, from David the
shepherd boy killing the giant Goliath to his kingship, his criminal prehension of
Bathsheba, and finally the proclamation of his son Solomon. Two years later Honegger
rescored it for orchestra (which form most recordings have adopted), and only for that
concert version was narration inserted - sometimes independent, sometimes as melodrama
(most strikingly in the scarifying scene of the witch of Endor).
Jacques Martin declaims the narration clearly and with a developed sense of drama; and the
performance as a whole is an impressive one (the smaller orchestration no less effective),
with very good players and chorus and an appropriately angelic-voiced Danielle Borst. The
only weaknesses are the tenor's heavy vibrato and a very poor treble for the initial
psalm. Honegger's language is extremely varied, from the exotic, the strident or the
atonal to the lyricism of 'Je t'aime, Seigneur' and the beatific and ecstatic final chorus
- a masterly movement. Be warned, by the way, that it is not the tracks that are numbered
but, uncorrespondingly, the movementsof the work." |
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Le
Roi David,H37 
8
553649 (66 minutes : DDD)