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Ravel - Daphnis & Chloe: complete ballet
£15.59
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New Item
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Cat No: HMM905280
Barcode: 3149020528020
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Ballet
Release Date: 31st March 2017
Roth’s recording is taken from Les Siècles’s European tour last year though, unlike the performance of Daphnis they gave at last year’s Aldeburgh festival, it does include the wordless chorus (provided by Ensemble Aedes) that Ravel made optional in concert. With the strings playing on gut and wind instruments from the early years of the 20th century (all detailed in the sleeve notes), the sound is fabulously transparent; every detail of the woodwind and brass articulation, so minutely specified by Ravel, is clear. Roth’s approach may be too cool for some tastes – there’s not much Dionysian abandon about it – but, as a guide to one of the most brilliant of all orchestral scores, it’s hard to fault. 
We don’t know what the orchestral sound was like at its 1912 Paris
premiere…but many listeners will be familiar with the 1959 LSO recording
by the original conductor, Pierre Monteux, long a treasure of the Decca
catalogue. Comparisons are instructive. Les Siècles’ French-built
woodwind and brass instruments from the early 20th century (documented
in the booklet) provide greater tonal sweetness, especially the Selmer
trumpets, which don’t dominate textures as much as the incisive LSO
brass. Lean gut strings achieve feathery lightness. ... François-Xavier
Roth teases a much more expansive opening than Monteux, a slow burn
leading to an ecstatic first choral entry. He is often more languorous,
the performance nearly four minutes slower than the Decca account.
However, Roth attacks the ‘Danse guerrière’ with more vim and also whips
up a faster bacchanalian finale. With fine choral contributions from
the Ensemble Aedes, this new recording is highly recommended. 
