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La
Mer (1903-05) - Boston SO
Conductor: Serge Koussevitzky (from HMV DB3923-3925, recorded 1939)
Images I & III (1906-12)
- San Francisco SO
Conductor: Pierre Monteux (from HMV DB6182-6183, recorded 1942, double-starred
in The Record Guide, 1952)
Printemps - Symphonic Suite
(1887) - Royal Phil. Orch.
Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham (from HMV DB6549-6550, recorded 1946, double-starred
in The Record Guide, 1952)
Nocturnes
(1893-99) - L'Orchestre de la Société
des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris
Conductor: Jean Fournet
(from Philips A 00.160L, recorded 1952, winner Grand
Prix de l'Académie de Disque, 1953)
Download ID: 137712/432804
Total
duration: 77'37"
Play
sample movement:
Order
CDs:
This
collection is something of a departure for us - for the first time we've
brought together a selection of recordings made by different orchestras
and conductors over a 13-year period. We've also put remasterings from
shellac and vinyl side-by-side, and the whole thing has been an artistic
collaboration between Andrew Rose at Pristine Audio, working on the 78rpm
recordings, and Peter Harrison at disk2disc, who remastered the
vinyl Nocturnes recording.
As
you can see from the track listing notes above, three of these recordings
was given top ratings by contemporary reviewers. Likewise, our recording
of La Mer was also considered the definitive edition of its day.
Musically the collection spans almost the full breadth of Debussy's orchestral
musical development, from the youthful Printemps through to the
mature splendour of the Images. This latter recording also compliments
our issue of Ibèria, the long second Image in three
movements, issued as PASC008.
All
in all this adds up to an extended musical treat - truly an International
Extravaganza!
REVIEW
OF DEBUSSY: An Orchestral Extravaganza
I've
known for more than a half century that Debussy was a great
composer. This release reminded me why he was a great 20th
century composer, a forerunner of Bartok and Stravinsky. Debussy
had a deep, almost mystical relationship with nature - the
sea, the sky, the water, the snow, the rocks, the land. He
was comfortable with the primitive. Most of all, he viewed
everything and himself with an objective eye, without sentimentality.
Oddly enough, the three significant performances in this seeming
lollipop of a release further this view of Debussy.
La
Mer (Boston Symphony, Koussevitzky) (1938).
One of the greatest of all performances of this supreme masterpiece.
Unexpectedly tough, masculine and austere. There is no lovely
mist; this is not a tropical ocean. The oceanic movement begins
and does not stop until three-quarters into the first movement
after the cello divisi theme when there is a pause with a
bit of melodic tenderness and then the constant oceanic motion
resumes. There is no lingering over details in the second
movement, but there is a lightening of texture and (as Eric
Satie said) there are some nice parts around "quarter
to eleven". But there is the constant awareness of the
unceasing movement of the sea, the fact that the sea is always
the same and never the same. The end of the second movement
comes more quickly that I had expected. The third movement
begins with overhanging gray menace which leads to a storm
which finally clears up and yields the first real calm and
warmth in the performance: the magnificent high string harmonics
over the yearning theme in the woodwinds representing humanity
at last. But the storm returns more ferocious than ever and
ends this greatest of French tone poems. Koussevitzky belongs
with Toscanini and Boulez in taking a tough, objective view
of La Mer.
Images
#1 (Gigues Triste) and #3 (Rondes de Printemps) (San Francisco
Symphony Orchestra, Monteux) (1942).
I don't know if it's Monteux's conducting or it's hearing
the two images divorced from their more famous #2 (Iberia),
but I was simply bowled over. I never knew they were such
wonderful works! The oboe in the Gigue Triste sounded so plangent,
so antic that I could believe I was in 13th century England.
The words I wrote down for Image #3 were joyous, primitive,
irrepressible, pileup of energy and joy. I have never heard
Monteux so unbuttoned before. Score a bullseye!
Printemps
(Royal Philharmonic, Beecham). (1946)
I don't care for this early, derivative Debussy work, mostly
warmed over Massenet. I don't even like fresh Massenet. Sir
Thomas is always at his most inspired playing second and third-rate
music, so he does well here.
Images
(Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Fournet) (1952).
While not quite on the level of Koussevitzky or Monteux, this
is a very good performance by Jean Fournet. Again, Nuages
and Fetes are rather clear-eyed and a bit austere, quite devoid
of mist. I could have done with a bit more excitement in Fetes
at the climax of the march. Sirenes, however, is extremely
good. Those ladies are very voluptuous and close and tying
one down to the mast might not have been sufficient.
My
stock of adjectives to praise the sound on Pristine Audio
releases is exhausted. May I only say that if Serge Koussevitzky
could briefly appear to hear his La Mer on my speakers, both
he and I might drop a tear or two.
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