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Review by Geohominid March 2, 2007 (5 of 5 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
If you feel buffeted by an uncaring world, place this disc into your SACD machine, put your feet up, relax and listen in a quiet room. You will be transported into a magical sound-world.
There are very few pianists in each generation who are able to make an outstanding success of interpreting the piano music of Debussy, and for that reason we hear it much less often than it deserves. The composers and conductors who painstakingly orchestrated the group of piano pieces arrayed in this collection clearly wanted to have the music heard by a wider public, and at the same time were inspired in their orchestrations by the instrumental sounds which Debussy had composed, overtly or covertly, into his piano pieces. Some of these transcriptions, all lovingly done, are relatively well-known, others, such as the Six Épigraphes Antiques, as rendered by Ernest Ansermet, are rarities. We also have arrangements by Caplet and Bousser, both of whom worked with Debussy's willing consent; Ravel, himself the consumate orchestrator, and Stokowsky, the arch-Wizard of the orchestra.
The Orchestre symphonique de Québec, conducted by Yoav Talmi, number only 60, but the quality of their playing on this disc had me spellbound. From the first liquid runs of the clarinet in the opening Doctor Gradus in Parnassum from Children's Corner to the shy ("gauche") double-bass elephant Jimbo in his Lullaby, the solo work is magnificent, especially from the winds. This is more than aided by the superb recording, warm, wide and airy, which captures every nuance as the flecks of sound and fragments of melody are tossed too and fro, always located precisely in the acoustic space, and exciting their own particular resonances in the hall's space. In my case, pace Polly Nomial, the walls of my listening room vanished, so I'm going for a 5 star recording in multi-channel.
Much of this music is modestly quiet and fantasically detailed, but there are some thrilling fortissimo climaxes, in which the horns and trombones arise majestically and excite even more acoustic resonances. These pieces are all about colour and movement, and I can't think of them being played, or recorded, any better.
Highlights for me - well, the Stokowski transcription of Claire de Lune, in which the opening melody, taken by the flute, immediately made me realise the strong link which this piece has with the opening of Prélude d'un apres-midi d'un faune. Stokowski puts his moonlight into the magical and mysterious world of the sleeping Pan, while Caplet gives us his interpretation at the end of the disc, using the strings for the opening, a more classical and perhaps plainer approach. Fascinating!
This disk will be in my player often. Dip into it or play it in whole, it is a sensuous adventure, and very, very French, as it should be. Perhaps afterwards, you might feel a little like a bon-bon gently dusted with icing sugar. Then head for some Beethoven!
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Review by JJ May 28, 2007 (4 of 7 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
Dans l'histoire générale de l'orchestration, le XXème siècle est un tournant pour son évolution, avec notamment l'apparition du courant impressionniste dont Claude Debussy en est la figure emblématique. Les compositeurs se réclamant de ce courant, "commencent à accentuer le rôle de la couleur orchestrale au sens purement pictural du terme", précise Michael Hurd avant d'ajouter que "la couleur harmonique et orchestrale fait à présent partie intégrante de la composition au même titre que la construction". En ce sens, "les impressionnistes s'écartent de l'écriture antérieure, brossée avec des traits vigoureux et des contours fermes, pour s'intéresser aux touches sonores subtiles, utilisant une technique qui s'apparente à celle de l'aquarelle". Le magnifique Super Audio CD qui nous occupe ici se penche sur l'orchestration d'œuvres pour piano de Debussy, avec "Children's Corner" orchestré par André Caplet, "Six Epigraphes Antiques" par le célèbre chef d'orchestre Ernest Ansermet, "Clair de Lune" avec deux orchestrations différentes de Léopold Stokowski et d'André Caplet, "Sarabande" et "Danse" par Maurice Ravel, ainsi que "La Soirée dans Grenade" et la "Petite Suite" orchestrées par Henri Busser. Programme copieux et fort bien construit que l'orchestre symphonique de la ville de Québec incarne avec un brio et un sens des couleurs absolument parfaits. Le chef d'orchestre Yoav Talmi sait trouver la souplesse idéale des phrasés et l'évidence de l'articulation, au sein d'un équilibre des pupitres tout aussi parfait. Voilà bien un disque rare à la prise de son remarquable respectant timbres et espace aussi bien en multicanal qu'en stéréo. Un SA-CD magique pour tous les amoureux de la musique de Debussy et les passionnés d'orchestration.
Jean-Jacques Millo
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