Three years having passed since Valery Gergiev was appointed the London Symphony Orchestra's Principal Conductor, I think the relationship can be assessed as an enormous and unqualified success. Last year's Rachmaninov 2 with the Londoners was simply stunning; their recent Prokofiev "Romeo and Juliet" tops the pile of available recordings; and their Mahler cycle has had more ups (1, 2, 4, especially 6, Adagio from 10) than downs (3, 7, and 8).
Although Gergiev's expertise in Russian music is widely recognized, it comes as a surprise to hear him lead a French masterpiece like "Daphnis" with as much skill and panache as this one. The recorded sound is better than any LSO Live disc I've heard; the LSO Live engineers have apparently worked out just how to put the acoustically dry Barbican Centre in its best light. The performance itself is expertly well-played--though perhaps not as diaphanously "French" as other great recordings (Munch/Boston Symphony and Chung/Orchestre Philharmonique and Choeur de Radio France come to mind). In fact, the general heaviness of the playing ("Danse grotesque de Dorcon") is really the only notch against this recording. "Boléro" and, especially, the "Pavane" fill the album out nicely; the LSO's principal horn shines in the difficult solo work of the latter piece.
In short, this is an excellent collaboration between the LSO and Gergiev. Highly recommended.
(Available for download at http://www.amazon.com/Ravel-Daphnis-Et-Chloé/dp/B004APZT8Y/ref=dm_cd_album_lnk?ie=UTF8&qid=1291247902&sr=8-1
)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment