Though best known for his many mellifluous flute works, French composer Philippe Gaubert (1879-1941) also wrote in all the usual genres from opera through chamber music. But despite his range, Gaubert's flute works have heretofore gotten far more attention, and this 2008 Timpani disc contains three digital world-premiere recordings: the Symphony in F major from 1936, Les Chants de la mer from 1929, and the Concert in F major from 1932. Here Gaubert's orchestral music gets its chance to compete in the international market place, albeit in a performance more dutifully determined than inspired from the
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg under
Marc Soustrot.
Whether the music succeeds or not is up to the listener. For the most part, Gaubert's music is blandly tonal with so few touches of chromaticism or impressionism that one might suppose it had been written half a century earlier by an adept but conservative composer. More damaging, Gaubert's music is also insipidly lyrical with so few effective melodies that whole pieces pass by without leaving a tune stuck in the memory. There's no denying Gaubert knew what he was about. The Symphony is skillfully structured, Les Chants de la mer colorfully scored, and the Concert lithely athletic. But there's also no denying Gaubert has little to say that's either original: imagine Ibert with a bit more ambition and Roussel with a lot less imagination and you have a fair idea of what Gaubert is like. Recorded in smooth, cool sound, this disc is likely to be only for listeners who have to hear everything composed in France between the two World Wars.