Fernande Decruck: Concertante Works Volume 2
Claves Records

Without the fervent advocacy of conductor Matthew Aubin, the diverse body of work produced by French composer Fernande Decruck (1896-1954) during the 1930s and ‘40s would continue to languish in obscurity. But through his efforts, her material is receiving newfound attention and once again vying for a place on the concert stage. That all four pieces on this second volume of Decruck material are world premiere recordings speaks to the lack of attention her work has received. They're performed by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra and Aubin, its Music Director, with cellist Jeremy Crosmer, violist Mitsuru Kubo, and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani featured soloists. The first volume appeared three years ago and followed a similar template, with in that case the conductor and orchestra joined by trumpeter Amy McCabe, harpist Chen-Yu Huang, and hornist Leelanee Sterrett.

To be sure, the music Decruck created wasn't revolutionary; instead, her compositions align themselves comfortably to the music of their time and draw from traditions that firmly established themselves before and during her lifetime. Accessible, harmonic, and melodic, her writing might suggest the influence of Impressionism at one moment and Romanticism the next, but it's always filtered through her ultra-personalized lens and offers an abundance of listening rewards. No one has promoted her work more enthusiastically than Aubin, who's studied her life and work extensively and been instrumental in making performances of her material a reality in the United States and Europe.

An educator as well as composer, Decruck taught many students, including one who became particularly well known and dedicated a score to her with the words, “To Fernande Decruck, with all the gratitude and fond memories of the author - O. Messiaen.” While the Decrucks lived in New York for several years (her husband played double bass and saxophone for the New York Philharmonic under Arturo Toscanini's direction), she and her three children moved to Toulouse in 1937 where she worked as a professor at the Toulouse Conservatory. After divorcing in 1950, she experienced financial challenges and health problems before dying four years later. Like any artist, she created work at different times and in different places, regardless of whether the circumstances were easy or difficult.

The album, recorded in Jackson, Michigan in June 2023, begins strongly with the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, written in New York City in 1932 and important for being her first known concerto and large-scale orchestral composition and for laying the groundwork for future work. Opening broodingly, the oft-melancholy first movement provides a luscious orchestral foundation for Crosmer to emote against, which he does arrestingly. His vibrato-rich tone carves a serpentine path through an expansive landscape replete with strings, flute, and harp, and the cellist distinguishes himself too during the part's expressive cadenza. A tranquil episode both calls Debussy to mind in its painterly evocation and anticipates the splendour of the "Adagietto, molto tranquillo” movement to come. Peaceful, pastoral, and lyrical, it captures the effectiveness of Decruck's writing and the ease with which it encourages embrace. Energized by a thunderous timpani intro, the “Allegro energico” sustains its animated form for five action-packed minutes and finds multiple instrumental parts entwining determinedly. The concerto testifies to Decruck's artistry and offers cello soloists a spectacular ‘new' piece to consider for their repertoires.

Arriving fourteen years after the cello concerto, The Trianons: Suite for Harpsichord (or Piano) and Orchestra (1946) was titled after two royal buildings in Versailles and written in a Neo-Baroque style. Esfahani excels in this three-part context, the arresting timbres of her harpsichord enhanced by their appearing alongside those of celesta and alto saxophone. After the lively opening movement makes its mark with regal gestures, the serene central movement is highlighted by interactions between the harpsichord and alto sax, oboe, flute, trumpet, and bassoon. Things heat up dramatically for a robust closing movement where syncopated harpsichord passages alternate rapidly with roller coaster-like orchestral flourishes. Decruck's most well-known work follows, the four-part Sonata in C# for alto saxophone (or viola) and orchestra (1943) with violist Kubo in the soloist's chair. It opens on a mysterious, even ominous note before turning gently radiant and the violist draping a series of ascending and descending runs across the orchestra. The alternately tender and sweeping second movement, marked “Noel,” quotes directly from the traditional French carol “Noël Nouvelet,” after which “Fileuse” (“spinning”) makes good on its title with a breezy stream of spiraling viola and orchestra passages. Far different in tone is the closing movement, which morphs from a funereal-styled march (echoes of Ravel's La Valse emerge) into a dynamic statement to usher the work to a rapturous close.

June 2025