Arthur Honegger - Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3 "Liturgique"

Arthur HONEGGER (1892-1955)

Symphony No. 2 for String Orchestra and Trumpet

Symphony No. 3 "Liturgique"

Berlin Philharmoniker 

Herbert Von Karajan

Recorded at St.Moritz, Franzosische Kirche, 8/1969 (No.2) and

Berlin, Jesus-Christus Kirche, 9/1969 (No.3)

Karajan's encounter with Honegger (the recordings were made in 1969 but, for some reason, released only in 1973) has earned him such quasi-universal accolades that the risk is to listen to the reputation rather than the recording. So, do Karajan's recordings of Symphonies No. 2 and 3 truly deserve the effusive praise if not worship they have received since they came out and still do from all quarters, especially in view of the existing competition?

Ultimately, yes, although not without some reservations. In capsule: they are versions with a unique personality, straying in many ways from the interpretive traditions prevalent at the time (those of Munch, Ansermet and Baudo) and on an opposite pole from Munch really, underlining the brooding aspects of Honegger’s music rather than its bite and fire.

Karajan's sonics are spacious and superb, silky and surrounding, and the conductor brings great intensity to the climaxes, especially in the slow movements, taken at what was, for the time, inordinately slow tempos (but Karajan has been “bettered” since, by the likes of Michel Plasson or David Zinman). In the Finale of Symphony No. 2, I hold it in his favor that his trumpet, when finally it plays in the final bars (at 3:56), should be so blended with the violins' texture. It makes sense to have, like every other versions, a more prominent and brilliant trumpet (like the ray of light erupting through the clouds), but Karajan's choice is much more faithful to Honegger's original intention: In the composer's own words, "to sustain the ending chorale I indicated an ad libitum trumpet. This is not an effect, it is only a support for the first violin melody in long note values, that runs the risk of being submerged by the polyphony of the other same-timbre instruments". Likewise, the finale of Karajan’s 3rd Symphony is great, a march towards doom taken again at a very deliberate tempo that went against all previous interpretive traditions (even the one represented by the composer himself in his recording from circa 1948) but… true to the score’s metronome indication. And the effect is great: one of frightening implacability, conveyed not just by tempo, but also by the massiveness of his orchestral dynamics, the instrumental bite of every orchestral section.

On the other hand, in the Allegro parts of the first movement of the 2nd Symphony and the first movement of the Liturgique, Karajan’s preference for weight and mass deprives the music of the element of breathless fury and raging urgency that Munch, Baudo, Mravinsky, Järvi or Jansons brought to it. Sometimes also, some important details just get blurred into the wash of strings ound. As often, the Austrian conductor favors a thick bass texture at the expense of crispness and bite, and in Honegger, it is a loss.

Bottom line: these are not versions that give the full and only possible picture of both works, but ones marked by a unique personality – “warts and all”. So the Honegger afficonado should complement these readings with others, in contrast: Munch with Orchestre de Paris in the 2nd Symphony and possibly Rozhdestvenski (also uniquely personal), Mravinsky, Järvi and/or Jansons, but also Jean Fournet (with a Finale even more radical than Karajan’s) in the Liturgique.

Amazon Review