During the inter-war years, Honegger was regarded m some quarters as a ma)or contemporary composer worthy to be spoken of in the same breath as Bartok, Prokofiev and perhaps even Stravinsky. But then opinions changed and he suffered decades of comparative neglect. However, some ten years ago, I remember writing in a magazine article that if there were a musical stock market and I had cash to spare, I would invest in Honegger, because I felt that his reputation was rising again and I would have been right to do so. His centenary year has brought us a number of valuable recorded performances, and the present four-disc issue deserves the warmest welcome. However, it is salutary to notice from a note on the back of the box that no less than nine of the works played here remain unpublished.
One of them is the Violin Sonata No. '0' such as Dong-Suk Kang and Pascal Devoyon play on the first disc, a big work that occupied Honegger for six months of the year 1912, when he was 20. It reflects his studies at the Paris Conservatoire more than his earlier ones at the corresponding institution in Zurich, and is French in a way that suggests Franck more than any other predecessor, though the whole-tone passage at around the five-minute mark reminds us that the young composer also knew his Debussy. Yet the work is not merely derivative, indeed it has beauty, so that one feels ashamed that it has lain forgotten for so long.
The two artists play the sonata with tremendous conviction and one only hopes that others will take it up and that it will find a place in the repertory. I see that Harry Halbreich, in his booklet essay, describes it as ''of course inferior'' to the official First Sonata of 1918, but I think this is misleading, for the piece is at least comparable to Ravel's early and long unpublished Sonata (1897) for the same instruments, which receives occasional performances. The other two sonatas (which the composer himself performed with his future wife, the pianist Andree Vaurabourg) are, of course, also worthy pieces, and the 'Second' of 1919 has an attractive inventiveness and harmonic bite, yet I confess to a special fondness for this early one, although its finale is unequal to the rest. As the list above shows, violin music figures prominently in Honegger's catalogue, and the Sonata for solo violin and Sonatina for two violins also show Honegger's understanding of the instrument. However, the former (written in 1940 and reflecting his knowledge of Bach) is too closely recorded. Although Kang plays it well enough there are some rough moments, not least in the Presto finale.
I must deal briefly with the remaining music. Thanks to Chandos, Timpani have secured the valuable contribution of the cellist Raphael Wallfisch in several works, including the fine Cello Sonata (1920) and the duo Sonatina with violin (1932) that are strongly played by this artist and, respectively, Devoyon and Kang: these are pieces to give pleasure and encourage us to reassess the contribution that Honegger made to twentieth-century music. Some of the other works here are also on a large or largish scale, such as the Viola Sonata, the early, one-movement (and maybe unfinished) Piano Trio and the three string quartets, sensitively played by the Ludwig Quartet (No. 1 has a touching youthful charm and passion). Others are shorter and include well sung vocal pieces (texts and translations are provided) as well as the Colloque for flute celesta, violin and viola and the Prelude for double bass and piano, written for an instrument with a compass between that of the cello and bass but working well on the latter. The issue comes from France with the support of the Fondation Pro Helvetica; it has a recording quality that is serviceable although not very refined, but the performances are unfailingly persuasive, and again I welcome these discs offering a long overdue conspectus of Honegger's chamber music.'