Rabaud: La Procession Nocturne

Day 158

Henri Rabaud: La Procession Nocturne

Orchestra National de Lyon

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

Henri Rabaud (1873-1949) is one of those splendidly moustached figures that one comes across in French  operatic history. The name has not quite completely faded away - largely because some early 20th century singers recorded arias from his one big hit Mârouf and those are still listened to by students of historical singing. But he is very much a minor figure.

This is an early tone poem (1899) which was the first of his works to gain wide attention. It is in several fairly slow sections, each of which is quite distinctive. It does sound like the work of a French composer, but again you can hear by the end of the century just how much Warner’s music had worked its way into the French musical idiom.  Indeed when one considers what Richard Strauss was achieving with tone poems a decade earlier (Don Juan dates from 1889) the music does seem a little stiff and old fashioned.

So my curiosity as to what Rabaud’s music might be like has been satisfied for now. I suspect that there is more to him that this and I might try to find time to listen to Mârouf at some point, but for now I will leave him here and go on tomorrow to another little known late 19th century French composer. I’ve not quite chosen which one yet - there are plenty to go at.