Debussy La Mer: favourite recordings

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Correction - it's five Karajan recordings, if you include the Unitel video film from the 1970s.

1950s, Philharmonia:



1960s, BPO:



1970s BPO:



1980s BPO:



... and the video:



(There's also a video/DVD from the '80s, but I think it's the same recording as the CD).

Karajan was a dedicated promoter of the work, and all the recordings are pretty damn fine (the MONO sound on the Philharmonia recording is astonishingly clear - no wonder Legge was a reluctant convert to Stereo if his engineers and the technology could produce sonic standards as good as this). The one from '60s is very special, though - and I don't think that the only reason I believe this is because this was the recording I first got to know the work from.

[richardfinegold]

Yes - somebody (I forget who) has so referred to it on this Forum a couple of times, too. -

Probably me; I've long remembered the review but never really explored von K in this piece. Will explore Qobuz to see if some of these recordings are there to be sampled

[visualnickmos]

The last La Mer that I purchased was Krivine, which was outstanding.

Which version was that? I think he's made three recordings... which is quite a survey!

Erato: Orchestre National de France

Timpani: Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg

Denon: Orchestre National de Lyon

[BBMmk2]

Though I am a pianist and a pianophile, two pianos is always too much for me! Just starts to bring out the limited range of the tone colours of the instrument. So, with La Mer, there's always a voice somewhere saying, 'what's the point?' when the orchestral version is so magical and thrilling in its range of colours and textures.

Very true. You cannot beat the magnificent original.

[richardfinegold]

Which version was that? I think he's made three recordings... which is quite a survey!

Erato: Orchestre National de France

Timpani: Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg

Denon: Orchestre National de Lyon

Good grief, I didn’t realize that. I believe it was recently released, but of course it may only recently become available on these shores and recorded much earlier. Regrettably, I have ripped it to my NAS, and the damn app doesn’t identify the Orchestra! I will have to see if I still have the CD.

Question about Karajan. When I searched Qobuz only two versions appeared. One was the mono Philharmonia and the other was listed as a 1985 release. Of course that may have been a re release of an older Karajan recording. The artwork for the later release does not correspond to any of the images in #136. Did HvK make a very late in life recording of La Mer? I also have to say that the stereo edition that I heard was big, bold, powerful,and not quite as subtle as the one that I heard on the radio a few days ago.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Question about Karajan. When I searched Qobuz only two versions appeared. One was the mono Philharmonia and the other was listed as a 1985 release. Of course that may have been a re release of an older Karajan recording. The artwork for the later release does not correspond to any of the images in #136. Did HvK make a very late in life recording of La Mer? I also have to say that the stereo edition that I heard was big, bold, powerful,and not quite as subtle as the one that I heard on the radio a few days ago.

Apologies - for some reason, the image of the cover of the 1970s recording (on EMI) didn't show in my post - I've corrected that with a photo from another source.

Karajan's final recording was from 1985 (four years before his death), a digital recording which was originally released with the cover shown fourth in the list in #136 (the "fish-eye" photo of the wave hitting the shore) - AFAIK, this hasn't been reissued singly (ie, apart from in the Big Box collections) with a different cover. Both the '60s and '70s were reissued with different covers over the years:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB787GB787&q=karajan+lamer+images&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj8sNHN7OnmAhWrQEEAHcx-BkwQ7Al6BAgJECQ&biw=1366&bih=625

"Big, bold, powerful, and not quite so subtle" sounds like it's the 1970s version on EMI - which, IIRC, was reissued at mid-price in the mid-'80s in response to the new Digital recording on DG.

[visualnickmos]

Good grief, I didn’t realize that. I believe it was recently released, but of course it may only recently become available on these shores and recorded much earlier. Regrettably, I have ripped it to my NAS, and the damn app doesn’t identify the Orchestra! I will have to see if I still have the CD.

Question about Karajan. When I searched Qobuz only two versions appeared. One was the mono Philharmonia and the other was listed as a 1985 release. Of course that may have been a re release of an older Karajan recording. The artwork for the later release does not correspond to any of the images in #136. Did HvK make a very late in life recording of La Mer? I also have to say that the stereo edition that I heard was big, bold, powerful,and not quite as subtle as the one that I heard on the radio a few days ago.

That may well have been the 1964 DG version :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Debussy-Mer-Ravel-Bolero-Claude/dp/B000001GA8/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=karajan+bolero&qid=1578146904&s=music&sr=1-3

It's the only Hvk version I have.... hovering over researching an 'el cheapo' version of his later DG (1980s) recording, which I understand to be 'more subtle' whatever that epithet may mean !