Mel Bonis’ Orchestral Works Album Review – full justice is done to his well-crafted and impressive compositions | Classical music

Treceives a re-examination of Good honey continues, and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Rumon Gamba do justice to his superbly recorded, well-scented music on this new piece. Bonis was in Debussy’s class, and his best works here are compared to his in terms of instrumentation, albeit on a smaller scale.

Bonis’ most ambitious work for orchestra was Trois Femmes de Légende, written around 1909. In the seductive, short poems, Ophelia appears as a kind of dangerous water nymph, Salome as a princess from a distant, exotic land in the east. The mystery surrounds Cleopatra, who is portrayed in songs that are curious but uninteresting, and the quiet notes of the bass instruments that accompany her singing.

Of the two orchestral pieces on the recording, both delivered beautifully by soprano Elizabeth Watts, Le Chat sur le Toit is the most charming, a vivid picture of a cat walking and walking on a rooftop. The lightness of the ship’s foot also lends itself to other functions here, many of which are dance. A few feel like interludes, going on almost before they start, but not less interesting that; These pieces are thin but perfectly made.