Lalo - Orchestral Works
£14.49
In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: Chandos
Cat No: CHAN20183
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 19th January 2024
Contents
Works
Le Roi d'Ys » Overture
Namouna: Suite no.1Namouna: Suite no.2
Namouna
» Valse de la cigarette
Symphony in G minorArtists
Estonian National Symphony OrchestraConductor
Neeme JarviWorks
Le Roi d'Ys » Overture
Namouna: Suite no.1Namouna: Suite no.2
Namouna
» Valse de la cigarette
Symphony in G minorArtists
Estonian National Symphony OrchestraConductor
Neeme JarviAbout
Lalo considered himself to be first and foremost an opera composer, even though Le Roi d’Ys was his only opera to be performed in his lifetime. He is now best known for his symphonic and chamber music, largely because of the highly political musical establishment in France in his time. The Overture to the opera (which opens this album) is now the best-known music from the piece, which proved a considerable success in France. His ballet Namouna was commissioned by the Paris Opéra and, remarkably, was completed in just four months following extensive delays in agreeing the subject – part of the tales of Casanova. After a successful run of fifteen performances, Lalo parcelled the music up into three ‘rhapsodies’ for orchestral performance. The first two of these were published as Suites nos 1 and 2. The third was not published, but the ‘Valse de le Cigarette’ was later issued separately. Lalo’s only surviving Symphony was completed in 1886, but somewhat overshadowed by Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony (1886) and Franck’s Symphony in D minor (1888), but it is a strong work that showcases Lalo’s melodic gift and forward-looking harmonic palette.
Sound/Video
Paused
-
1Le Roi d'Ys: Overture
-
2Namouna: Valse de la Cigarette
-
3Namouna: Suite No. 1. 1. Prélude
-
4Namouna: Suite No. 1. 2. Sérénade
-
5Namouna: Suite No. 1. 3. Thême varié
-
6Namouna: Suite No. 1. 4a. Parades de foire
-
7Namouna: Suite No. 1. 4b. Fête foraine
-
8Namouna: Suite No. 2. 1. Danses Marocaines
-
9Namouna: Suite No. 2. 2. Mazurka
-
10Namouna: Suite No. 2. 3. Dolce far niente (La Sieste
-
11Namouna: Suite No. 2. 4. Pas des cymbales
-
12Namouna: Suite No. 2. 5. Presto
-
13Symphony in G minor. I. Andante
-
14Symphony in G minor. II. Vivace
-
15Symphony in G minor. III. Adagio
-
16Symphony in G minor. IV. Allegro
Europadisc Review
Now comfortably into his mid-80s, revered Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi shows no signs of letting up. With nearly 500 recordings to his credit, he must be one of the most prolific musical artists of our times. Many of those discs have been made for the Chandos label, in a relationship that spans more than three decades. The range of repertoire is vast: everything from Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler to Atterberg, Halvorsen and Suchoň – not forgetting some impressive surveys of Dvořák and Prokofiev along the way. Recent forays into the world of French stage music by the likes of Auber, Delibes and Massenet have demonstrated a sympathetic feel for the Gallic idiom at the helm of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, of which Järvi is Honorary Artistic Director for Life.
All of which bodes well for his latest release of orchestral music by Édouard Lalo, recorded in Tallinn in June 2022 and missing by just a sliver last year’s Lalo bicentenary. It’s ironic that Lalo – who thought of himself primarily as an opera composer – only witnessed one of his operas produced in his lifetime, and is best remembered today for his concertos and orchestral works. But this rewarding disc nevertheless opens with the Overture to that single operatic success, the Bréton-themed Le Roi d’Ys. From its brooding opening it blossoms into a gripping piece of orchestral theatre, with eloquent solos for clarinet and cello, and its effectiveness as a self-standing concert item is evident in this compelling performance. The pungent voicing of the woodwind ‘choir’ in the slow introduction is particularly striking, while the brass fanfares that soon ensue have a thrilling edge. Järvi knows exactly how to make this music bloom, but he also knows where to dig in, and the performance makes an ideal curtain-raiser to the disc as a whole.
From opera we progress to the world of ballet, upon which Lalo looked dismissively, yet his 1882 debut in the genre, Namouna, is a sumptuous score with a Mediterranean setting that provides the opportunity for plenty of local colour of the sort Lalo relished. The original production was choreographed by Lucien Petipa, whose brother Marius was the creative godfather to Tchaikovsky’s great contributions to the genre. After the initial run of fifteen performances at the Paris Opéra, with little prospect of revival, Lalo extracted three ‘Rapsodies’ from the score, two of which were published as Suites. Järvi and his Estonian forces programme both the Suites, prefacing them with a single item from the third Rapsodie, the ‘Valse de la cigarette’, during which the eponymous heroine is made to roll a cigarette by her lover Ottavio, ending the dance while smoking it. After two brusque introductory chords, this is a dance that combines Mediterranean seductiveness with graceful Gallic flair, and Järvi coaxes just the right combination of lightness and abandon from his players.
The Suites themselves are utterly absorbing. The first opens with a dreamy Prélude, progressing to a Sérénade featuring pizzicato mimicking of a plucked mandolin by the harps and strings, and culminating in music from the heady Act I finale, in which is embedded a teasingly evocative flute solo, executed with exquisitely balletic charm by the unnamed principal here. There’s more local colour in the second Suite, the opening Danses marocaines incorporating authentic Moroccan tunes jotted down by Lalo at the 1878 Exposition Universelle, an incongruous but delightful Mazurka which served as a vehicle for guest ballerina Julia Subra, a voluptuously oriental ‘Dolce far niente (La Sieste)’, and an exotic ‘Pas des cymbales’ for waltzing dancers playing miniature cymbals. In the concluding Presto, dancing slave-girls exhaust their master Ali until he collapses in a heap. It’s all brought off splendidly here, the beguiling Mediterranean atmosphere clearly exerting great attraction for the Baltic players.
Lalo’s only purely orchestral Symphony (as opposed to the ever-popular concertante Symphonie espagnole) is a G minor work in the customary four movements which was part of the Gallic cultural counterattack on German art in the wake of the disastrous Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Composed in 1886, it was overshadowed by Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony and Franck’s Symphony in D minor; but it counted among its champions no less a figure than Thomas Beecham, and its forthright style and cyclic elements give it a distinct Beethovenian tinge. While the opening movement (complete with slow introduction) and the heartfelt third-movement Adagio are earnest affairs, the scherzo-like second movement (after staccato introductory chords) is a much lighter affair, and finds Järvi at his nimble best, with a lament-like trio section, all taken from material in Lalo’s opera Fiesque. The concluding Allegro combines taut muscularity with dashing character, and if in the final analysis the work lacks the last ounce of individuality of Saint-Saëns and Franck, this persuasive performance unveils the abundance of charm that no doubt attracted Beecham. Lovers of French Romantic music need not hesitate: expertly recorded for Chandos by Kaspar Karner, and with fine booklet notes by Hugh Macdonald, this album’s a keeper!
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here