Charles Koechlin - 3 Poèmes du 'Livre de la Jungle', Op. 18

Composer: Charles Louis Eugène Koechlin (27 November 1867 -- 31 December 1950)
Orchestra: Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Choir: Berlin Radio Chamber Choir
Conductor: David Zinman
Soloists: Ralf Lukas (baritone), Iris Vermillion (mezzo soprano), Johan Botha (tenor)
Year of recording: 1993

3 symphonic poems from 'The Jungle Book' (after Kipling), Op. 18, written between 1899-1901.

00:00 - I. Berceuse phoque
05:31 - II. Chanson de nuit dans la jungle
08:50 - III. Chant de Kala Nag

Kipling's Jungle Book appeared in 1894 and was immediately translated into French by Louis Fabulet and Robert d'Humières. Its impact can hardly be overestimated. The story of Mowgli, the "little man" raised by wolves, and the lives of jungle creatures fancifully seen through their own eyes, held tremendous appeal for an era choking on its own sophistication. By 14 March 1899, Koechlin was setting the Berceuse phoque -- the Seal Lullaby prefacing the story "The White Seal" -- with the Chanson de nuit dans la jungle (Night Song in the Jungle, prefacing "Mowgli's Brothers") and the Chant de Kala Nag (the verses before "Toomai of the Elephants") completed by 1901. Crowning the end of Koechlin's first decade as a composer, through which he steadily expanded his harmonic technique, these Jungle Book settings leave the world of the mélodie -- the orchestral mélodies of Duparc and even Ravel's still-to-come Shéhérazade (1903) -- far behind in their ambition and sheer glowing, glittering sensuousness. As Robert Orledge remarked, "Although Koechlin bravely made a piano reduction which he himself performed...this is purely orchestral music." Koechlin's orchestrations followed over 1903-1904.

All three poèmes have a choral complement -- mezzo solo and female choir in unison for the Berceuse and tenor and an optional chorus of unison tenors in the Chant de Kala Nag. The Chanson de nuit features a duet for contralto and baritone with female choir. There is little even among the riches of fin de siècle music to rival the immediate engulfing enchantment of the Berceuse, while the Chanson de nuit undulates with bounding yet subtle menace -- "O hear the call! -- Good hunting all/That keep the Jungle Law!" Most wrenching is the Chant de Kala Nag, the song of the elephant used as a pack animal -- "I will forget my ankle-ring and snap my picket-stake./I will revisit my lost loves, and playmates masterless" -- in which Koechlin evokes the freedom of the jungle in tumult and fanfares. The Jungle Book would involve Koechlin for the remainder of his life, drawing major music, as it would the similarly inspired Percy Grainger.

The Berceuse phoque was heard for the first time on 11 March 1908, performed by Jane Hatto with Koechlin at the piano at the Théâtre des Arts, followed by a performance with modernist champion Jane Bathori on 7 May. The premiere of the three songs together was given at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier on 26 November 1917, by Filliat, Engel, and Laisné and a chorus conducted by Koechlin.