Das Land Phantásien, an orchestral
fantasy on The Never Ending Story, is scored for narrator and
large orchestra. It may thus be considered as some sort of sequel to
the much better-known works by Poulenc (L’Histoire de Babar),
Prokofiev (Peter and the Wolf), Howard Blake (The
Snowman and Granpa) and the more rarely heard
Betje Trompet en de Reus by the Belgian composer Louis
De Meester, the latter work being a much neglected, though highly entertaining
piece of music. The layout of the piece is similar to that of most of
these pieces in that the narration is generally commented upon by the
music. There is indeed very little melodrama here. Matthus, as his predecessors,
managed to remain his own self throughout and he never writes down to
his younger audience. The music is obviously from the same pen as that
of the Cello Concerto and the symphony, reviewed elsewhere. It is of
course more fragmentary as incidental music often is, but the whole
is tied together by a few recurring themes. To some extent, Matthus’s
piece might be A Young Man’s Guide to Contemporary Music, and,
as such, might become as popular as its illustrious predecessors.
In the present recording, the narration is of course
in German and, though the text is printed in the insert notes, there
is no English translation. Nevertheless, this little-known piece for
younger (and not so young) audiences is superbly done and should appeal
to wide audiences. For anecdote’s sake, let us mention that Matthus
came to write this piece at the instigation of Kurt Masur who once gave
him a copy of the book suggesting that Matthus should write an opera
based on this text. Matthus uses some material from that opera which
he is working on and another ballet score listed by his publisher, though
the ballet might be the same piece as the one recorded here. Very fine
and highly entertaining, and I hope that there might soon be a recording
with an English or French narration for I am fully convinced that Das
Land Phantásien should and could become a highly popular
work with younger audiences.
Hubert Culot
Michael Heltau (narrator);
Bruckner Orchester Linz; Ingo Ingensand 
