0 Debussy: Nocturnes; Ravel: Daphnis Et Chloe Suite No. 2, Pavane; Scriabin

It seems that at some point DG made some of its best recordings with the Boston Symphony and a wide variety of guest conductors: Abbado, Tilson Thomas, Steinberg, Bernstein, and Jochum. The performances collected here are wonderful. The BSO has always been acclaimed in French repertoire, and at this point in his career Abbado had not yet turned into the fussy micromanager that he is now (at least most of the time). And Scriabin also is French, to the extent that he’s anything at all.

 

This version of the Nocturnes is certainly the best by this orchestra, and one of the best by anyone. Consider the opening of Fêtes: perfect tempo, ideal transparency of texture, and bright trumpets that provide power without stridency (sound clip). These qualities grace the two Ravel items equally, and work equally well. The Daphnis Second Suite, alternately poetic and exciting, with its chorus parts intact, also ranks with the best on disc.

As for the Poem of Ecstasy, a work you either love or hate, it proceeds in a seamless arch of opulent excess, from mysterious opening to the concluding blast of sound. DG’s remastered sonics are very good–not state of the art for today, perhaps a touch dry, but a slightly lean sonority suits the music well, even the Scriabin (especially if you have a low tolerance for schmaltz). A great collection. -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Detail: Debussy: Nocturnes; Ravel: Daphnis Et Chloe Suite No. 2, Pavane; Scriabin

0 Debussy: La Mer, Images & Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

Anima Eterna Brugge, Jos van Immerseel

“[Immerseel] sees beyond the mere timbre itself and looks to the bristling impact that the music must have made when it was new...the freshness of Debussy's imagination is underlined by performances that have a strong dramatic impulse inflected with all manner of expressive subtleties that bring the music to life...Anima Eterna's disc approaches it with a compellingly rejuvenated outlook.” --Gramophone Magazine, February 2013

“Van Immerseel's approach can seem a bit too deliberate; there's something ponderous about Prélude à l'Après-Midi...it's the orchestral Images that gains most from the brighter, rawer colours of this performance, with the myriad subtleties of Debussy's scoring more beguiling than ever.” --The Guardian, 1st November 2012 ****

“Woodwind, brass and strings are highly individuated: the solo flute is blanched in tone, the trombones broad and warm. For sound alone, it is a fascinating experiment, though van Immerseel’s tempi are somewhat indulgent.” --The Independent on Sunday, 25th November 2012 ****

Detail: Debussy: La Mer, Images & Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

0 Berlioz: Symphony Fantastisque, Etc

...[E]xcellent Berlioz performances... Leonard Bernstein's dramatic yet classically structured recording of the Symphonie fantastique was highly regarded when it was first issued, but outside of purchasing an import LP, American audiences have not been able to hear it in all its glory until now... I have always felt that Previn's ardent, exceptionally well played readings of...the composer's overtures is highly underrated... -- Rad Bennett, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing EMI 73338]

Detail: Berlioz: Symphony Fantastisque, Etc

0 Debussy: Orchestral Works

Gramophone Magazine
Editor's Choice - August 2012

“Denève shows how precise were [Debussy's] choices of instrumental colour and how well-defined and animated the images he was expressing through his music...There is nothing vague about these performances; rather they convey both the dynamism and the delicacy of the music with understanding and stimulating freshness.” --Gramophone Magazine, August 2012

“his meticulous attention to detail is impressive, but what should be a complex, living seascape remains stubbornly one-dimensional...Outwardly brilliant, inwardly dull. Perplexing.” --MusicWeb International, August 2012

“his Debussy is his own, muscular yet transparent, colouristic yet atmospheric and mysterious...Even that symphonic warhorse La Mer sounds freshly reimagined by the young Frenchman, whose sense of the music’s ebb and flow, with surging climaxes, is unerring...an ideal way to acquire Debussy’s orchestral masterpieces” --Sunday Times, 3rd June 2012

“Denève still summons a sensuous bloom in the Prélude, and thanks to his influence, the RSNO proves better than the French at their own game: these are among the most seductive Debussy performances I have heard in years.” --Financial Times, 9th June 2012 ****

“Denève has clear ideas about the lucidity of Debussy’s scoring and he conducts the orchestra in a way that brings the poetic or visual pictures that inspired the music vividly and freshly to life...All are performed with finesse and with a combination of energy, discretion and colour that give them a luminous quality.” --The Telegraph, 22nd June 2012 ***

Detail: Debussy: Orchestral Works

0 España

This recording reveals conductor Ataulfo Argenta at the very peak of his art. His command of the Spanish rhythms, innate sense of orchestra colors and intense lyricism infuse this flamboyant music with an irresistible spirit.

Before he was killed in a freak accident, aged only 44, Ataúflo Argenta (1913–1958) was the foremost Spanish conductor of his generation and on the verge of a major international career. After studying in Germany, he founded the Madrid Chamber Orchestra in 1946 and in 1947 was appointed chief conductor of the Orquesta Nacional de España which quickly grew into a major ensemble.

Argenta also established himself in Paris with the Paris Conservatoire and French National Radio orchestras and made a considerable number of recordings in London for Decca. He was closely associated with Ernest Ansermet and the Suisse Romande Orchestra, the former seeing him as a potential successor.

Detail: España