Amazingly, most of this music is available in multiple recordings, even the much-maligned Third Symphony, subtitled “Short Symphony in a Time of War”. It’s actually not that short (32 minutes), and it’s really not a bad piece at all, being closely argued and sporting more than a few attractive ideas. However, the two major pieces are Istar, one of d’Indy’s most convincing essays and a wholly winning combination of compact form (variations, with the theme only revealed at the end) and exotic tone-color, and the Diptyque, warm and mellow, sort of like French Delius. The Choral varié features an interesting solo part for saxophone, very well played here, but the music is less compelling than that of the other pieces.
However, the performances generally sound very convincing. Rumon Gamba doesn’t let d’Indy’s post-Franckian chromatic harmony gum up the music’s works, and he chooses tempos that never let the listener’s attention stray. The Iceland Symphony plays quite well–better, in fact, than the provincial French ensembles traditionally entrusted with this repertoire on its previous outings for labels like EMI or Auvidis (remember them?). The relative lack of heft in the strings also isn’t the liability it seemed to be in the performance of the Second Symphony in Volume 2. With very good engineering, this third volume in Chandos’ ongoing series deserves a spot on your shelf.
