Debussy La Mer: favourite recordings

[Pulcinella]

Did he include Paray, Munch and Reiner - conductors very much on the Cowan approved list!

His Selected Discography actually includes 22 versions, all discussed in fair detail (1956 BSO Munch and 1960 CSO Reiner among them); the Paray gets merely a passing mention in his closing summary (he calls it animated).

[Beef Oven!]

Tabachnik/Brussels Philharmonic

Thanks HighlandDougie and Bryn re: the above.

Looks too interesting to resist!

Ordered for ten-bob more than Bryn's price - the vendor had 100% positive feedback and UK based with a sooner delivery date. The cheaper vendor was 98% and US based with quite a long delivery estimate.

[Bryn]

Tabachnik/Brussels Philharmonic

Thanks HighlandDougie and Bryn re: the above.

Looks too interesting to resist!

Ordered for ten-bob more than Bryn's price - the vendor had 100% positive feedback and UK based with a sooner delivery date. The cheaper vendor was 98% and US based with quite a long delivery estimate.

I'm happy to wait, though I often find the estimated delivery range from over the Pond is somewhat pessimistic.

[Beef Oven!]

I'm happy to wait, though I often find the estimated delivery range from over the Pond is somewhat pessimistic.

I've just read a review of this CD on MusicWeb. Written by that well-known conductor, coach and journalist, Stephen Francis Vasta. I don't think he likes it!

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Sept12/Debussy_La_Mer_BPR001.htm

[HighlandDougie]

Friends visiting for the weekend recently brought as a gift - and as a very welcome alternative to a large-size and hastily-bought-at-Gatwick Toblerone or three - Pablo Heras-Casado's recent CD of 'La Mer', 'Prélude à 'Après-midi' and 'Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastien', with the Philharmonia in terrific form. The 'La Mer' is, I think, a live recording from an RFH concert in January - and is very good (as is the rest of the disc - wonderful evocation of that sort of half-lit atmosphere in 'Le Martyre'). Handsome production from Harmonia Mundi with interesting notes. They can come again any time!

[cloughie]

Gave the LAPO Leinsdorf a listen today and confirmed early thoughts - it's still up there with the best!

[jayne lee wilson]

It is very good isn't it? By Rob Cowan... it turned out I had his (surprising) top choice but I've never played it! Or one of his (very surprising) secondaries....
If you don't want to know the score, look away now....

Top Choice:
Hallé/Elder (c/w Debussy Preludes arr. Colin Matthews - why I originally bought it).

Other three:
LSO/Stokowski (1969, Kingsway) "The Wild Choice" (on my shelves for years, not heard this either...)
NBCSO/Toscanini (Guild CD) "Historical Choice"
Lucerne Festival O/Abbado (EuroArts DVD) "DVD Choice"

I wonder if anyone followed up and heard the Hallé/Elder? It is absolutely marvellous, about as vividly realised upon the orchestra as one could fantasise but never thought to hear....but here it is. So naturally, idiomatically expressive, physically very powerful, yet every tiny detail is uncannily, preternaturally clear.
Poignantly I see from the inlay that it was recorded in Studio 7 New Broadcasting House...no wonder it sounds so good. (In fact well above even the usual high standards of that lamented, noble venue).

Should have made it a listed building...

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

[Alain Maréchal]

I wonder if anyone followed up and heard the Hallé/Elder? It is absolutely marvellous, about as vividly realised upon the orchestra as one could fantasise but never thought to hear....but here it is. So naturally, idiomatically expressive, physically very powerful, yet every tiny detail is uncannily, preternaturally clear.
Poignantly I see from the inlay that it was recorded in Studio 7 New Broadcasting House...no wonder it sounds so good. (In fact well above even the usual high standards of that lamented, noble venue).

Yes, I did. I found it in fnac (I expected it to be ignored). I entirely agree about its virtues both sonically and in execution, but I miss a certain sense of abandon. I certainly miss the french orchestral sound as heard so vividly* in that Rosenthal recording which Jayne admires. I'm still putting Ansermet (1957) at the top of my own list, however.

* question for the pedants. Can one hear vividly? Is the English derivation similar to vif? Corrigez-moi svp.

ps I detested the orchestrations of the preludes. I do not want to hear them in any other way than on the pianoforte.

pps. I understand that the revised score entails more than the excision of the fanfares. There were changes to the cornet à piston and timpani parts, and other minor adjustments. I presume they are the sort of amendments that any composer makes when the opportunity arises.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

* question for the pedants. Can one hear vividly? Is the English derivation similar to vif?

Yes, and yes.

[Beef Oven!]

I wonder if anyone followed up and heard the Hallé/Elder? It is absolutely marvellous, about as vividly realised upon the orchestra as one could fantasise but never thought to hear....but here it is. So naturally, idiomatically expressive, physically very powerful, yet every tiny detail is uncannily, preternaturally clear.
Poignantly I see from the inlay that it was recorded in Studio 7 New Broadcasting House...no wonder it sounds so good. (In fact well above even the usual high standards of that lamented, noble venue).

Should have made it a listed building...

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

The CD arrived yesterday and I played it through once on arrival and again this morning. Unfortunately, I'm still Mutt & Jeff in my left ear so a proper listen must wait. But what I can tell from one lug-hole is that this is a very special recording. So far what has impressed me is how Elder manages all the transitions within each movement. It all seems so effortless and 'right'. The balance between all the instruments is perfect, as far as I can tell. The percussion is strong and assertive without being overbearing, the harp is astonishingly clear and 'blends' perfectly into the music unlike some performances where it sticks out as almost a 'special effect'. Ill say more about he strings, woodwinds and brass when I get my ear back. I sometimes find the finale a little 'clunky' and a bit out of keeping with the subtler first two movements, always coming across with plenty of intensity and passion, but not as finely spun as the music that went before. In this performance I think Elder proves that any problems of this kind have nothing to do with the music itself.

[HighlandDougie]

, but I miss a certain sense of abandon.

... which is certainly not missing from the Tribune des Disques-favoured Michel Tabachnik/Brussels PO version. If Boulez's NPO La Mer is the North Sea then Tabachnik's is, well, the South China Sea?? I can understand why the Radio France jurors and listeners liked it so much - no holds barred Debussy - but I'm not sure that I would want to listen to it to the exclusion of others (I like Haitink's English Channel version). Fine recording, though.

[Beef Oven!]

ps I detested the orchestrations of the preludes. I do not want to hear them in any other way than on the pianoforte./QUOTE]

People are raving about these!

It didn't seem like a sensible venture to me and my listening got off to a bad start. I have the companion CD with Jeux and the rest of Colin Pluto's orchestration and dived straight into the underwater cathedral. I thought it was abysmal! Lost absolutely everything. But on listening to the rest, I'd say that there are some moments of quite breathtaking orchestral music, and they really work for me. Off the top of my head I'd vouch for Brouillards, Ce Qu'A Vu Le Vent D'Ouest, Canope and one or two others that aren't on the top of my head! I suspect that I will listen to these transcriptions quite a lot in the coming months and they will grow on me.

[silvestrione]

Yes, I downloaded the Elder from the Chandos site. It's very fine, and will be near the top of my list now.

I wonder, with such space around all the instruments and the harp almost in the room, such transparency, is that a mite artificial? Recorded in a Studio, I see....

I also miss a little of the abandon and drive you can find elsewhere. 'Drive' wrong word: sense of symphonic development? 'Symphonic sketches' after all.

The famous Haitink and Karajan (60s) have a more natural, concert hall balance. I have ordered the Abbado as well. Rob Cowan was so positive about so many recordings, I could have ordered half a dozen!

P S, downloaded it, because I DEFINITELY did NOT want the orchestrated preludes!

[Alain Maréchal]

People are raving about these!

as in "raving mad"?

[Alain Maréchal]

I also miss a little of the abandon and drive you can find elsewhere. 'Drive' wrong word: sense of symphonic development? 'Symphonic sketches' after all.

I think 'drive' is an appropriate word. Towards the end of jeu de vagues I want to feel as though I am driven along the crest of waves by the wind. How about "exhilaration"?