HONEGGER: SYMPHONY NO. 1; “PASTORALE D’ETE”; “PACIFIC...

HONEGGER: SYMPHONY NO. 1; “PASTORALE D’ETE”; “PACIFIC 231”; “RUGBY”; “MOUVEMENT SYMPHONIQUE” NO. 3. Bavarian Radio Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit. Erato NUM 75254 (digital). Honegger outlived his relationship with “Les Six” to evolve into a symphonist of distinctive appeal whose post-impressionist idiom deserves wider circulation. The second installment of Dutoit’s Honegger cycle restores the First Symphony (1930) to the catalogue in a performance that mixes vibrant clarity with sensuous textures. The Bavarian Radio Orchestra scarcely sounds like it plays this repertory every week, but Dutoit lends an evocative grace to the shorter works, distilling the exuberance of “Pacific 231,” and the deliquescent harmonies of “Pastorale d’ete.” Adequate, if scarcely gripping sonics.