Discovering Fernande Decruck, between France and America

American conductor Matthew Aubin is working to rediscover the work of Fernande Decruck (1896-1954). The one who was, among others, Olivier Messiaen’s harmony professor was also a brilliant orchestrator.

Let us admit that until today, we had never heard of Fernande Decruck (1896-1954). This pupil of Marcel Dupré, née Fernande Breilh, a brilliant improvisator at the organ, first had a career in the United States where in 1928 she met her husband, Maurice Decruck, saxophonist and double bass player in the New York Philharmonic, at the time led by Arturo Toscanini.

It is also for the saxophone, an instrument for which she composed around forty partitions, that the work of Fernande Decruck is still a little played and known.

Returning to France in 1937, where she was a professor at the Toulouse Conservatory then of Fontainebleau, Fernande Decruck bequeathed a much larger work, including a number of piano pieces, chamber music, ballet music and films, concertos.

The American chief Matthew Aubin, musical director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, has been passionate about this composer, whose first world records he offers. This is how the Swiss Label Claves appears to be the second volume of the concerted work of Fernande Decruck.

As a harmony assistant professor at the National Conservatory of Music Music in Paris, Fernande Decruck had in particular as a student a certain Olivier Messiaen. But do not seek the harmonic, rhythmic and polytonal audacity of his famous pupil in her work. We are here rather in a neo-classicism of Bon Aloi, with a few impressionist touches, where the main daring reside in original orchestrations where saxophones, vibraphones and Toms sometimes come to “shake up” the melodies of strings and woods. Influences without American doubts of a spirit which remains however very French.

Like the Cello concerto from 1932 which opened the program. An a priori work without roughness where the cello sings almost from one end to the other of the themes filled with innocence and a very “Hollywood” lyricism. All this might seem a little naive, if it was not the mysterious swing and the very ravelian orchestration of the central adagietto, much finer than it seems. The cello of Jeremy Crosmer can deploy his beautiful sound there, without much virtuoso stake.

Much more interesting is the next part, The Trianons, continued for harpsichord and orchestra. Composed in 1946, this work in the fashionable neo-baroque style between the two wars, is a tribute to the large and small Trianon of Versailles. We cannot fail to think of CHARGEVE CONCERTO de Francis Poulenc, composed in 1928. Fernande Decruck retained elegance, finesse, harmonic and rhythmic daring, a little less humor, of his elder. But, despite the influence, its suite remains captivating, in particular thanks to its orchestration where saxophone, Célesta and Toms bring funny sound contrasts to the neo-baroque spirit of the whole. This is particularly the case in a wonderful and lunar central Andante where the saxophone melody accentuates the melancholy of the harpsichord serenade and the song of the bassoon, the flute and the oboe. The harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, all in nuances, is in perfect osmosis with a light and precise orchestra.

The Sonata in UT TIESE for saxophone and piano From 1943 was the most “known” work of Fernande Decruck. However, this is the version for viola and orchestra that chief chief Matthew Aubin for this disc. A choice that is both interesting and a little frustrating. Fernande Decruck’s orchestration undoubtedly brings a richer, sometimes impressionist and polytonal sound palette. The sound of the viola violin is necessarily darker and foggy than that of the original alto saxophone. But that also removes a share of concern and dream. Especially since the fairly supported alto of Mitsuru Kubo dramatizes the work more while removing the humor and the unreal side of the saxophone.

The disc ends on Vienna bell towers. A series of waltzes composed in 1935, reconstructed by Matthew Aubin from fragments of partitions found at the Tours Conservatory but also in Portugal. It is absolutely charming, with no other ambition than the pure pleasure of music.

Let us salute the work of Matthew Aubin and the Jackson Symphony Orchestra to get out of forgetting this endearing artist. A tribute from our America cousins ​​to French chic.

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