Reviewed by Dave Massey

Honegger wrote the music for this musical play at short notice, but despite this the result is a powerful and evocative score that could have graced one of the big political film epics with it's sweeping eastern rhythms and bare chords painting a wonderful picture of David's Israel. The music is by turns lyrical and moving and raucous and disturbing - especially in the first part where Saul's creeping madness provides an excellent tension that is woven expertly into the har­monies. Most of the lyrics were taken by the Swiss playwright Rene Morax from the Psalms, interspersed by narration threading the story together into a coher­ent whole but too much intensity from Stephen Audel gives the whole thing a kind of 'ham' quality reducing the whole thing to the level of a soap ... perhaps Eldo­rado is not so appalling after all? (No, Eldorado is def­initely appalling. Ed.). I have no complaints about the excellent work from La Suisse Romande and their con­ductor Ernest Ansermet but soprano Suzanne Danco is a bit too plummy for my liking. Unlike a great many modern pieces though, Le Roi David is quite listenable to - it was, after all, written for Joe Public to be able to relate to and as such, no doubt, a great many musical snobs have pooh-poohed it over the years preferring to sit and listen to their cryptic musical crosswords. A great composer emerges from the woodwork here for a few moments of lucid and understandable music before returning once more into the unapproachable holy of holies. Worth getting, I'd say