Symphony No.2

Although Honegger had long intended to compose a piece for Paul Sacher and the Basle Chamber Orchestra - and had actually written a short Largo for strings as a token of his good intentions in 1936 - he did not start work on the Symphony for strings until November 1940. It was the first, very cold winter of the German Occupation of Paris, which was all the more miserable for Honegger since, as he recalled, “it was impossible to build a fire in my studio and I was freezing.” The Adagio mesto second movement, which he approached first, is a clear reflection of the conditions in which it was written.

The first movement, which was completed in May 1941, indicates that it wasn’t only the cold that inspired the desolate atmosphere of the larger part of the work. Its Molto moderato introduction is dominated by a viola recitative that sounds like a prayer for deliverance. The answer is nothing more comforting than the grotesque, striding theme that is introduced by cellos and basses as the first subject of the following Allegro. The slightly slower second subject, a plaintive melody high on first violins, offers no hope either. Two more appearances of the Molto moderato, between the development and the recapitulation and just before the coda, confirm that the prayer continues.

The Adagio mesto begins with a two-note sobbing motif that goes on, in one form or another and at some level in the texture, through most of the movement. It is not, however, as dark a conception as the first movement. There is an obvious relationship between the expressive melody that is introduced here by violas and the recitative of the Molto moderato introduction to the work. But there is a hint of light in the legato line carried by first violins on their long-delayed first entry and there is an almost positive radiance when, after a climax culminating in an eloquent utterance from double-basses at the top of their range, that violin line returns in an encouragingly clarified texture. The sobbing is resumed, however, and persists to the final bars.

So the sudden brightness of the opening of the Vivace non troppo and the cheerful transformation of the once grotesque main theme of the first movement represent a rather surprising change in atmosphere. The change is not illusory, however. The second-subject melody, drawn in a sustained and shapely line by first violins and set against continuing rhythmic activity elsewhere, seems to indicate a new confidence. If the recall of that melody high on violas seems a little desperate all remaining doubts are dispelled when, towards the end of the Presto closing section, a fervent chorale theme is proclaimed by first violins over the animated recapitulation of the first subject. In most performances the violin chorale is doubled by a solo trumpet. Although, as the composer has explained, “it is not a desired effect, merely a support for the melody which runs the risk of being absorbed by the polyphony of the other instruments,” the entry of the trumpet at this point is an effective and appropriate gesture.

Honegger’s Second Symphony was first performed in May 1942 not, as it turned out, by the Basle Chamber Orchestra but by Sacher’s other ensemble, the Collegium Musicum of Zurich.

Gerald Larner©