Franck: (Les) B�atitudes, Composer: C�sar Franck Fran�ois Loup (bass) Daniel Ottevaere (bass) Armin Jordan Conductor David Rendall (tenor) Peter Jeffes (tenor) Marcel Vanaud (bar) Louise Lebrun (soprano) Jane Berbi� (mez) Nathalie Stutzmann (cont) French Radio Chorus French Radio New Philharmonic Orchestra. Why, we may wonder, has Les beatitudes failed to take the place in French music corresponding to Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in this country? This performance, though often quite strong and fervent, may provide some kind of an answer. It was recorded at a live occasion in Paris last November, and the acoustic is a good one for soloists, choir and orchestra alike, while the conductor Armin Jordan shows the right kind of sympathy with the style. Yet somehow the overall effect is disappointing, and the spiritual experience that Franck so much desired to convey in this much loved text (the New Testament words here amplified by Madame Colomb, the wife of a teacher at the Lycee de Versailles) is not really achieved.
