Ravel - Daphnis & Chloe - Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

 

Release Date: April 14, 1992 Label: Decca Japan Number of discs: 1 Composer: Maurice Ravel Performer: Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande cd info/ buy

Review:

An idiomatic sense of style and a very fine ear have kept these performances before an admiring public for more than four decades in some cases. Ernest Ansermet's Daphnis et Chloé remains one of Ansermet's (and the work's) great recordings. It has that "magical" atmosphere in abundance, and a gripping symphonic logic that carries the work off in a single impressive span. Ansermet correctly treats the chorus as an integrated, coloristic background, and not soloistically, and if the final Bacchanale doesn't have quite the lift of some other favorite versions (Munch or Boulez, say), the scene in the pirate's camp and the threatening apparition of Pan never have been done better. Finally, although the disc claims that Ansermet plays Ma Mère l'Oye complete, he actually uses his own version, which includes the Prélude and first dance from the complete ballet, followed by Ravel's five-movement suite in its original (non-ballet) order without the connecting material composed for the stage presentation. It's an effective concept, and like most of the performances on this excellently remastered CD, one that well withstands the test of time.--David Hurwitz

 

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Ravel - Orchestral Works - Ansermet, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

 

Release Date: October 14, 2008 Label: Decca Japan Number of discs: 1 Composer: Maurice Ravel Performer: Ernest Ansermet, cd info/ buy

Review:

Ansermet was best known for his interpretations of Debussy, Stravinsky and Ravel, ultimately because of his friendships with the composers and his personal knowledge of what these composers wanted out of their scores. Couple that with Ansermet's engineering background, and you have some of the best sounding recordings ever made in the golden-age of stereo. Sure this import costs a bit more, but Ansermet's Ravel performances are worth every penny.

 

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Sir John Barbirolli - Great Conductors of the 20th Century

 

 

 

The Barbirolli volume in the Great Conductors series focuses on relatively rare items in his discography. This Elgar Enigma Variations, for example, is his first stereo version, not the later, better-known one. The latter boasts a better orchestra, but this 1956 Pye release has a lot going for it too, not least the extra touch of warmth in the string-centered slower variations like "Nimrod".

There's also a long out-of-print Ravel Mother Goose Suite with the Halle winds a bit overextended, a heavyweight Meistersinger Act One Prelude, and a magnificent "Love Duet" from one of Barbirolli's rare complete opera recordings, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, with Scotto and Bergonzi in great voice.

The real rarity though, is the Mahler Second, a work Barbirolli often performed in his later years but never recorded. EMI provides incisive cleaned-up stereo sound for this live performance from Stuttgart made shortly before his death. Barbirolli's performance is full of passionate fervor but the execution is often slipshod. Still, admirers of Barbirolli's Mahler will want his only available Mahler Second. --Dan Davis

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