Here is the second disc in a series which I welcomed last year (5/95). The unusual idea of mixing Milhaud’s 18 quartets with vocal works pays off artistically, though people investing in this set will have incurred a substantial outlay by the time of its completion. One vocal piece here, the Machines agricoles, was often cited in early histories of twentieth-century music, partly because of its uncompromisingly mundane text from a commercial catalogue, yet this is apparently its first recording. Similarly, the seven-song Catalogue de fleurs sets texts from a florist’s shop: the longest of them lasts a mere 90 seconds and “La Begonia” is just seven bars long. Yet in the first of these cycles of 1919-20 for voice and septet, Milhaud told us of his serious response to “the beauty of these large coloured metal insects... I had the idea of glorifying them”.
Even so, the Machines is relentlessly prosaic, with plodding rhythms and a diatonic vocal line pitted against thick contrapuntal textures, non-descript both melodically and harmonically. Still, there’s some contrast between the sections and the gentle ending has charm. The influence here is that of Satie in his plainest vein. The Catalogue de fleurs is much more subtle and attractive; indeed it sounds more carefully written. Despite my cautionary comments, Milhaud fans will want these pieces, idiomatically sung here by Ulrike Sonntag. The three string quartets – No. 3 with a vocal finale – are sometimes gritty but emotionally rewarding, offering dense polyphony and polytonality. No. 5 (1920) is dedicated to Schoenberg, whom Milhaud was to visit in Vienna soon after the work’s composition. Much the easiest listening here is provided by the rhythmically vital No. 4, composed in Rio de Janeiro, but even this contains a central funeral march. Committed playing and clear recording.'