Debussy La Mer: favourite recordings

[cloughie]

- and it occurs to me that I might appreciate the minimalist theatre of Ormandy's conducting much more these days than I did thirty years ago.

He could almost have been a role model for Uncle Bernie!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

He could almost have been a role model for Uncle Bernie!

- neither figure very highly on my list of favourite conductors, but both recorded some excellent Debussy discs.

[Petrushka]

That experienced yachtsman, Herbert von Karajan, is my 'go-to' in his 1960s DG recording while Haitink is my second choice.

Does anyone remember a fascinating R3 programme in which Stephen Johnson took the second movement apart and put it back together again?

[jayne lee wilson]

Still waiting for my Gramo., breath bated, could look online I guess, but....

Many of my OTBT favourites are tucked away in some box or other, like the Manuel Rosenthal's 1957 recording with the Paris Opera Orchestra ( a little dry, but lovely, so instinctively French and so idiomatic, a 6CD set on Accord)....
And the startling but faithful recreation from Hans Zender, with the Saarbrucken RSO (CPO). Both of these refresh the Debussian palette, if you "grew up with" Karajan's earlier classic, or the impeccable, unimpeachable Haitink.

[Alain Maréchal]

Ernest Ansermet - L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - Decca

There are at least three - 1958 is the one for me.

[Alain Maréchal]

Does anyone remember a fascinating R3 programme in which Stephen Johnson took the second movement apart and put it back together again?

I think I do, and I recall his saying that in that movement Ansermet makes every interpretative choice correctly*.

I have noticed that I always hear the fanfares, even when they are omitted in the performance I am listening to.

*It occurs to me that "correctly" cannot be a suitable term. I think he was saying that each choice EA made was the inevitable one to succeed the previous choices, so that the movement flowed flawlessly, with a form of musical determinism.

I am looking at the Atlantic as I write, and currently it looks like the opening of dialogue du vent et de la mer, and the wind is shouting rather loudly.

[HighlandDougie]

Just noticed that Caliban's fave - Tribune des Disques - "did" La Mer a few months ago. Roth, Immerseel, Dénève, Rattle and Boulez (Cleveland) all get the heave-ho. The chosen version (of the six under consideration) was Michel Tabachnik and the Brussels Philharmonic. Not, I must confess, a version I know although Tabachnik is a consistently interesting conductor (Xenakis etc).

[jayne lee wilson]

That experienced yachtsman, Herbert von Karajan, is my 'go-to' in his 1960s DG recording while Haitink is my second choice.

Does anyone remember a fascinating R3 programme in which Stephen Johnson took the second movement apart and put it back together again?

I guess it was part of this...?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p024858m

[Alain Maréchal]

I guess it was part of this...?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p024858m

I rather think it was much earlier, and possibly Interpretations on Record. I recall comparisons.

[Pulcinella]

Still waiting for my Gramo., breath bated, could look online I guess, but....

Many of my OTBT favourites are tucked away in some box or other, like the Manuel Rosenthal's 1957 recording with the Paris Opera Orchestra ( a little dry, but lovely, so instinctively French and so idiomatic, a 6CD set on Accord)....
And the startling but faithful recreation from Hans Zender, with the Saarbrucken RSO (CPO). Both of these refresh the Debussian palette, if you "grew up with" Karajan's earlier classic, or the impeccable, unimpeachable Haitink.

OTBT?

[Dave2002]

I don’t have many Debussy recordings, other than those in the occasional box set. I always liked Jean Fournet on Supraphon with the Czech PO, though whether it was the performances or the recording which swayed me I don’t know. I didn’t do many comparisons, and some of the Supraphon recordings from that time were/are very good. This was one of them.

That recording may not be currently available. I’m checking.

The recording has been available in a 3 CD set - https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/cl...rnet-in-prague Might be difficult to get in the UK right now, will check other sources.

jpc.de have it - https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/det...e/hnum/3309068

[HighlandDougie]

OTBT?

Without wishing to steal Jayne's thunder, I guess that it might mean 'Off the beaten track'??

[Pulcinella]

Without wishing to steal Jayne's thunder, I guess that it might mean 'Off the beaten track'??

Yes, that makes more sense than a brand of women's shoes, which is where Google took me.

[Beef Oven!]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, there's a wonderfully warm but detailed Celibidache MPO recording on EMI with lengthy rehearsal excerpts.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes, that makes more sense than a brand of women's shoes,.

No - that would be Ravel.