BaL 12.02.22 - Ravel: Daphnis & Chloé

[Maclintick]

Just a word of warning to those who do not already have the top choice. On amazon.co.uk, it cost rather more to purchase the individual disc than to get the 6-disc set of his DG recordings of Ravel and Debussy, and that's not pro-rata but total cost, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boulez-cond...r%2C108&sr=1-1

Belated thanks for this advice, Bryn. i already had LSO/Monteux & OSM/Dutoit, but this 6-CD box is a mega-bargain. The performance of Jeux, a Boulez calling-card as long as I can remember, is worth the price of the set alone, sweepingly sensual and almost Tristan-like -- pace the clichéd view of this conductor as clinically objective. Contrariwise, I don't find much rapport between PB & Krystian Zimerman in the Ravel G major, but in the LH concerto they yield only to Samson François/PCO/Cluytens, IMHO.

[Pulcinella]

Belated thanks for this advice, Bryn. i already had LSO/Monteux & OSM/Dutoit, but this 6-CD box is a mega-bargain. The performance of Jeux, a Boulez calling-card as long as I can remember, is worth the price of the set alone, sweepingly sensual and almost Tristan-like -- pace the clichéd view of this conductor as clinically objective. Contrariwise, I don't find much rapport between PB & Krystian Zimerman in the Ravel G major, but in the LH concerto they yield only to Samson François/PCO/Cluytens, IMHO.

I wonder if Boulez had a slight aversion to the G major concerto: in the two Sony sets (Boulez conducts Ravel and the huge Boulez box) there's a version, presumably the original coupling to the LH concerto (Entremont/Cleveland/Boulez), that's Entremont/Philadelphia/Ormandy.

Just listening to the DG box now.

[Barbirollians]

Of the versions played that I do not have I really liked the Munch- sadly it seems that secondhand copies even are prohibitively expensive.

Thanks to vinteuil who directed me to a very cheap copy of this secondhand . It’s a gorgeous performance.

[Bryn]

Thanks to vinteuil who directed me to a very cheap copy of this secondhand . It’s a gorgeous performance.

A very fine recording, that. I was fortunate enough, nine and half years ago, to find a "Used - Very Good" copy of the SACD version for £5.46 (including p&p). Its only real advantage is the higher resolution transfer. The original recording was in only 2, rather than the 3 chnels found in some Living Stereo recordings. I see to also have a couple of different releases of the CD version, too. One is part of a French RCA double album (purchases some time before the SACD) and that in the 86 disc Munch big box. Perhaps I should put the French double album copy up for sale, though, frankly, the transfer is not as good as that in the big box.