Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986) was born in Poland but spent nearly all of his professional career living (and composing) elsewhere, including Hollywood. His music tends to have a cosmopolitan air about it, taking the best Romantic impulses from French (Les Six) and German composers (especially Hindemith). Roussel and Milhaud lurk between the lines of Sinfonietta 1, a perky outing with all manner of flirtatiousness among the brasses and winds in the first movement, while specters right out of Stravinsky’s French period haunt the ghostly third, a dolorous Notturno lento. More of the American (i.e. Hollywood) influence can be seen in the Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra, a 1944 composition that belies the wartime mood of the era in which it was written. It bubbles, it dances, it’s a pleasure to listen to. The Sinfonia piccola, composed in Paris in 1952, is perhaps the most interesting work here. Its somber opening leads quickly into a jazz-like expression of accelerated rhythms and punctuated syncopations that, again, will recall both Roussel and Milhaud.
Unfortunately, as good (and important) as Tansman’s music is, it quite simply needs better performances than those collected on this release. The sound is passable, but is biased toward the high end, which wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that the brasses in general and the flutes in particular hit occasional wrong notes. The shrillness especially asserts itself in some of the difficult wind passages in the first movement of Sinfonietta 1. The insecure horn playing detracts further. Only Sinfonia piccola comes across as well-enough rehearsed. Still, Tansman’s music is appealing and perhaps will receive deserving attention from ensembles better prepared and more sympathetically recorded.
