BaL 18.05.24 - Debussy: Jeux

[Pulcinella]

3.00pm
Building a Library
French composer Claude Debussy fashioned a taut and intense ballet around a game of tennis, a work which lasts less than twenty minutes. Flora Willson joins Andrew to propose her ultimate recommendation to buy, download or stream.

122 listings on the Presto site here:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/48898--debussy-jeux-poeme-danse/browse

[Pulcinella]

Previous BaL recommendations:

29/11/2003, Jonathan Swain

Top recommendation:

Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez (conductor) (recorded 1991)
DG 439 896-2 (CD)

Also recommended:

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink (conductor) (recorded 1979)
PHILIPS 438 742-2 (2-CD)

L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet (conductor) (recorded 1958)
DECCA 470 255-2 (CD)

The BBC MM CD (Volume 16, Number 10) features the BBCSO under Peter Eötvös: Barbican, 15 February 2003.

[Serial_Apologist]

Mine still has to be Ansermet with the Suisse Romande for this, my favourite Debussy work.

[LMcD]

3.00pm
Building a Library
French composer Claude Debussy fashioned a taut and intense ballet around a game of tennis, a work which lasts less than twenty minutes. Flora Willson joins Andrew to propose her ultimate recommendation to buy, download or stream.

6-0, 5-1 (retired hurt) ?
My only recording is by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.

[Petrushka]

Haitink must surely be in running for top spot, a quite beautiful performance and recording.

My favourite live performance was one with Rattle and the CBSO which seemed to float. How he achieved this I've no idea but it was quite extraordinary.

[Belgrove]

This was the subject of one of our Summer BAL’s

https://www.for3.org/forums/forum/classical-forum/record-review/our-summer-bal/18370-our-summer-bal-61-debussy-jeux

It took quite a while for this work to click with me, and the much lauded Haitink version never helped. I finally ‘got it’ with the aid of Dutois with the Montreal SO, and Boulez with Cleveland. Roth with Les Siècles is the pick of the modern versions. An amazing piece, quicksilver doesn’t do it justice.

[Pulcinella]

This was the subject of one of our Summer BAL’s

https://www.for3.org/forums/forum/classical-forum/record-review/our-summer-bal/18370-our-summer-bal-61-debussy-jeux

It took quite a while for this work to click with me, and the much lauded Haitink version never helped. I finally ‘got it’ with the aid of Dutois with the Montreal SO, and Boulez with Cleveland. Roth with Les Siècles is the pick of the modern versions. An amazing piece, quicksilver doesn’t do it justice.

Thanks for that link: I thought there had been some more recent dicussion.

[Barbirollians]

One of the worst reviewers so it’s a skip from me - have Haitink ,Rattle and Cluytens

[Pulcinella]

Prediction based on the last two editions of BaL:

New Philharmonia Orchestra/Boulez (Sony) won't get mentioned.
Cleveland Orchestra/Boulez (DG) will.

[smittims]

Felix Aprahamian used to tell a delightful anecdote about how they inserted a missing tambourine shake into the recording by Victor de Sabata. How they managed this on 78s I don't know , unless the side was dubbed .

I think this must be one of the most intensely-scored orchestral works, the score running,I think, to 130 pages, but the music lasting only 13 minutes or so. I'm sorry that Toscanini, who admired Debussy's music and made some fiine recordings of it, never, I think, conducted this work, nor Rondes de Printemps either.

[richardfinegold]

Haitink must surely be in running for top spot, a quite beautiful performance and recording.

My favourite live performance was one with Rattle and the CBSO which seemed to float. How he achieved this I've no idea but it was quite extraordinary.

Haitink and Martinon are the two that I spin. Debussy is one of my favorite composers but it’s only in the past few years that I have warmed to this piece

[Sir Velo]

Prediction based on the last two editions of BaL:

New Philharmonia Orchestra/Boulez (Sony) won't get mentioned.
Cleveland Orchestra/Boulez (DG) will.

Flora Wilson has been 10 times a reviewer on BAL. Studying her form, I would suggest a flutter on this recording might pay out.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8497767--debussy-nocturnes-jeux-prelude-a-lapres-midi-dun-faune

[oliver sudden]

To me Jeux and Bruckner 8 have one thing in common: I enjoy them immensely right up to but unfortunately not including the last three notes, which I can’t help but find a bit silly.

I sometimes like to swap the endings of Jeux and Sorcerer’s Apprentice in my head just for fun.

[HighlandDougie]

Flora Wilson has been 10 times a reviewer on BAL. Studying her form, I would suggest a flutter on this recording might pay out.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...midi-dun-faune

I’m predisposed to like pretty much anything from Les Siècles/F-X R but, along with Haitink, this has been my “go-to” performance of a favourite work since it was released. The Boulez/NPO LP was my introduction to ‘Jeux’ a very long time ago and was imprinted in my musical consciousness thereafter but, rather indifferent recording quality aside (alas, also a characteristic of the fine performance by Hans Zender), I would be hard-pressed to choose between Roth and Sir Bernard.

[Alison]

Flora Wilson has been 10 times a reviewer on BAL. Studying her form, I would suggest a flutter on this recording might pay out.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classica...midi-dun-faune

My bet is on.