Elsa Barraine: Symphonies 1 & 2

Elsa Barraine must have been a musical prodigy. At the age of eighteen, she came second in the competition for the coveted Prix de Rome, and at nineteen she had it in the bag. While the pupil of Paul Dukas was in the Eternal City, she composed her first, unmistakably neoclassical symphony of remarkable quality and independence: no question, this was no talent, this was the articulation of an outstanding figure. And it fulfilled the great expectations: The "symphonic illustration of the poem Pogrom by André Spire" proves to be a gripping tone poem, the second symphony from 1938 unleashes a maelstrom that one is neither willing nor able to resist. And then there is the "Funeral Music for the Entombment of Titian" from 1953 - a passacaglia whose expressiveness and forcefulness take your breath away.