Mussorgksy - Pictures at an Exhibition; Ravel - La Valse
£16.10
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Label: Harmonia Mundi
Cat No: HMM905282
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 3rd April 2020
Contents
Artists
Les SieclesConductor
Francois-Xavier RothWorks
Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)La Valse
Artists
Les SieclesConductor
Francois-Xavier RothAbout
Toscanini regarded this orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition as a genuine treatise on instrumentation, on a par with that of Berlioz: scored for the same instrumental forces as La Valse, Ravel’s version quickly established itself ahead of all the many competing orchestrations of Mussorgsky’s piano suite.
In François-Xavier Roth’s view, La Valse and the Pictures together represent the peak of the composer’s output for the symphony orchestra of his time – that is to say, as the musicians of Les Siècles reconstruct it for us today. What a joy to get back to the original colours of this music.
In François-Xavier Roth’s view, La Valse and the Pictures together represent the peak of the composer’s output for the symphony orchestra of his time – that is to say, as the musicians of Les Siècles reconstruct it for us today. What a joy to get back to the original colours of this music.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Les Tableaux d’une exposition : Promenade
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2Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 1. Gnomus
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3Les Tableaux d’une exposition : Promenade
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4Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 2. Il vecchio castello
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5Les Tableaux d’une exposition : Promenade
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6Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 3. Tuileries
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7Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 4. Bydlo
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8Les Tableaux d’une exposition : Promenade
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9Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 5. Ballet des poussins dans leurs coques
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10Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 6. Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle
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11Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 7. Limoges – Le Marché (La grande novelle)
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12Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 8a. Catacombæ (Sepulcrum romanum)
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13Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 8b. Cum mortuis in lingua mortua
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14Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 9. La Cabane sur des pattes de poule (Baba-Yaga)
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15Les Tableaux d’une exposition : 10. La Grande Porte de Kiev
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16Ravel : La Valse, poème chorégraphique, M72
Europadisc Review
Although it was Saint-Saëns in the 1870s and 80s who began Gallic efforts to counter German dominance in the symphonic sphere, it was arguably not until the new century and the emergence of Debussy and Ravel that French orchestral music really found a ‘new way’, full of orchestral colour and nuance, and freer, narrative forms that could stand shoulder-to-shoulder against the Austro-German symphonic tradition that reached its apex in the works of Bruckner, Mahler and Strauss. The French flair for colour can best be appreciated when heard on the sort of instruments Debussy and Ravel wrote for, so it’s no surprise that recent recordings by François-Xavier Roth and his splendid colleagues in Les Siècles have thrown new light on this repertoire. Using period French instruments wherever possible, and with brass playing far more secure than the often wayward efforts of the past, textures in such works as Debussy’s Jeux and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé have come up as fresh as newly-restored paintings, carefully stripped of layers of dirt and well-meaning ‘touchings-up’ (for which, read the tendency to ‘blending’ and homogenisation that took hold in the 1970s and 80s).
Having already set down their accounts of Daphnis et Chloé, Mother Goose and Le Tombeau de Couperin to wide acclaim, Roth and Les Siècles now reach what may be considered the apex of Ravel’s art as an orchestral writer of genius in the ‘choreographic poem’ La Valse (1920), coupled with his ubiquitous (and thus often undervalued) orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition of just two years later. Mussorgsky’s original piano work, written as a tribute to his friend, the architect and painter Viktor Hartmann, boldly original and hugely demanding in its own right, seems to cry out for orchestral treatment, and Ravel’s version is by far the most familiar to modern audiences. But familiarity can breed, if not contempt then certainly complacency: Roth blows the cobwebs away not just through the use of broadly contemporary instruments (including French Buffet-Crampon bassoons and Antoine Courtois trombones) but by employing a new critical edition of the score which removes some of Koussevitzky’s later amendments (he enjoyed a monopoly on performances of the work in its early years) as well as correcting some of the errors resulting from the Rimsky-Korsakov edition of Mussorgsky’s piano piece from which Ravel worked.
The textural differences are relatively minor, but the sonic difference when compared with ‘standard’ recordings is huge. At every corner, from the opening Promenade with its distinctly Gallic brass, through the incisiveness and ghostly glissandi of ‘Gnomus’, the seductive alto saxophone of Il vecchio castello’, the lightness of the woodwind in ‘Tuileries’ and the solo tuba in C of ‘Bydlo’ as an ox pulls its heavy load, to the snarling brass that lead us into the Roman catacombs, and the glorious yet crystal-clear textures of the closing ‘Great Gate of Kiev’, this is a performance that revels in the astonishing detail of Ravel’s score while never forgetting that this is a journey (both musical and through the imaginary ‘gallery’ of Mussorgsky’s narrative conceit).
The woodwind certainly make their mark here, deftly balanced by Roth to bring out the timbral character of each instrument: it’s a shame that the booklet omits mention of the players and instruments in the oboe and clarinet groups. Yet it’s the brass that really shine (how different from some French recordings of old!), not least the principal trumpet of Fabien Norbert, in the Promenades and in such movements as ‘“Samuel” Goldenberg and “Schmuÿle”’ with its beautifully-drawn intimations of a split personality (is this two distinct people or rather two sides of the same character?). The orchestral showpieces of the ‘Tuileries’, ‘Limoges’ and the nightmarish ‘Baba-Yaga’ are dazzlingly brilliant, percussion clear as a bell (as it were), and the pacing as sure-footed as we’ve come to expect from Roth. The restrained vibrato of the strings and the narrow-bore brass ensure that, even in the ringingly magnificent concluding pages, textures are wonderfully transparent. If ever a repertoire war-horse was refreshed by a new but un-gimmicky recording grounded in solid musicological research and command of period techniques, this is surely it.
Completing the disc is La Valse, in a performance which has all the virtues already enumerated, and which takes a more balanced, less hysterical approach to this celebration-cum-elegy for the Viennese waltz and the culture it represented. From the opening murmurings (where every textural strand is clearly discernible, and the string portamenti and dynamic swells speak volumes), this is a performance to savour in every detail. As Diaghilev is said to have remarked, this is not so much a ballet as a painting of a ballet, and Roth and his musicians clearly ‘get’ that once-removed perspective, not by sounding detached but by careful inference of nuance. The listener can sense the presence of the observed yet imaginary dancers as clearly as the paroxysms of the work’s later pages, where the hallucinatory aspect takes on a whirlwind character that sweeps one away without losing hold of that crucial thread of objectivity. It helps that the recording, made in the Philharmonie de Paris, is so well delineated throughout, while the booklet notes, by Roth, Jean François Monnard and François Dru, are exceptionally interesting. For lovers of French music, this ear-opening disc is a real treat, every bit as good as the same team’s previous Ravel and Debussy releases.
Having already set down their accounts of Daphnis et Chloé, Mother Goose and Le Tombeau de Couperin to wide acclaim, Roth and Les Siècles now reach what may be considered the apex of Ravel’s art as an orchestral writer of genius in the ‘choreographic poem’ La Valse (1920), coupled with his ubiquitous (and thus often undervalued) orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition of just two years later. Mussorgsky’s original piano work, written as a tribute to his friend, the architect and painter Viktor Hartmann, boldly original and hugely demanding in its own right, seems to cry out for orchestral treatment, and Ravel’s version is by far the most familiar to modern audiences. But familiarity can breed, if not contempt then certainly complacency: Roth blows the cobwebs away not just through the use of broadly contemporary instruments (including French Buffet-Crampon bassoons and Antoine Courtois trombones) but by employing a new critical edition of the score which removes some of Koussevitzky’s later amendments (he enjoyed a monopoly on performances of the work in its early years) as well as correcting some of the errors resulting from the Rimsky-Korsakov edition of Mussorgsky’s piano piece from which Ravel worked.
The textural differences are relatively minor, but the sonic difference when compared with ‘standard’ recordings is huge. At every corner, from the opening Promenade with its distinctly Gallic brass, through the incisiveness and ghostly glissandi of ‘Gnomus’, the seductive alto saxophone of Il vecchio castello’, the lightness of the woodwind in ‘Tuileries’ and the solo tuba in C of ‘Bydlo’ as an ox pulls its heavy load, to the snarling brass that lead us into the Roman catacombs, and the glorious yet crystal-clear textures of the closing ‘Great Gate of Kiev’, this is a performance that revels in the astonishing detail of Ravel’s score while never forgetting that this is a journey (both musical and through the imaginary ‘gallery’ of Mussorgsky’s narrative conceit).
The woodwind certainly make their mark here, deftly balanced by Roth to bring out the timbral character of each instrument: it’s a shame that the booklet omits mention of the players and instruments in the oboe and clarinet groups. Yet it’s the brass that really shine (how different from some French recordings of old!), not least the principal trumpet of Fabien Norbert, in the Promenades and in such movements as ‘“Samuel” Goldenberg and “Schmuÿle”’ with its beautifully-drawn intimations of a split personality (is this two distinct people or rather two sides of the same character?). The orchestral showpieces of the ‘Tuileries’, ‘Limoges’ and the nightmarish ‘Baba-Yaga’ are dazzlingly brilliant, percussion clear as a bell (as it were), and the pacing as sure-footed as we’ve come to expect from Roth. The restrained vibrato of the strings and the narrow-bore brass ensure that, even in the ringingly magnificent concluding pages, textures are wonderfully transparent. If ever a repertoire war-horse was refreshed by a new but un-gimmicky recording grounded in solid musicological research and command of period techniques, this is surely it.
Completing the disc is La Valse, in a performance which has all the virtues already enumerated, and which takes a more balanced, less hysterical approach to this celebration-cum-elegy for the Viennese waltz and the culture it represented. From the opening murmurings (where every textural strand is clearly discernible, and the string portamenti and dynamic swells speak volumes), this is a performance to savour in every detail. As Diaghilev is said to have remarked, this is not so much a ballet as a painting of a ballet, and Roth and his musicians clearly ‘get’ that once-removed perspective, not by sounding detached but by careful inference of nuance. The listener can sense the presence of the observed yet imaginary dancers as clearly as the paroxysms of the work’s later pages, where the hallucinatory aspect takes on a whirlwind character that sweeps one away without losing hold of that crucial thread of objectivity. It helps that the recording, made in the Philharmonie de Paris, is so well delineated throughout, while the booklet notes, by Roth, Jean François Monnard and François Dru, are exceptionally interesting. For lovers of French music, this ear-opening disc is a real treat, every bit as good as the same team’s previous Ravel and Debussy releases.
Reviews
[Roth’s] performance [of La Valse] is less nihilistic than some readings, it’s lighter, wonderfully athletic and full of brilliantly lit detail, though still mustering a real punch in the cataclysm of the final pages. ... in Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures, premiered just two years after La Valse, it’s the brass section that comes to the fore. Though the disc gives no details of where and when the recording was made, the sound is wonderfully vivid, and both in the opening Promenade and the final Great Gate of Kiev, the immediacy is startling. ... The result is like viewing a restored old master; every detail glows, exactly as Ravel would have imagined it. Andrew ClementsThe Guardian 2 April 2020
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