Originally posted by richardfinegold
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You really need to hear the older French Classic accounts in Roussel Symphonies, especially the Erato Lamoureux/Munch, and Paris Conservatoire/Cluytens (EMI, Testament, Toshiba etc) for that instinctive sense of rhythm and pace, and those French orchestral palettes. Jean Martinon's ballet recordings (Erato) are pretty wonderful too.
The Naxos cycle isn't bad at all and well-recorded, but too often I find it goes for weight over subtlety; lacks tautness, warmth and colour. Newer alternatives are scarce, but Eschenbach (Ondine) is outstanding in 1,2 and the ballets; fascinatingly darker and slower in 3 & 4, both very probing, considered readings. Most unusual...!
Don't overlook the Janowski, originally on RCA, which while rather set back in a very spacious acoustic is also very subtle and expressive in phrase and colour; it has a very wide dynamic range but Janowski always controls and grades the power. Those intricate wind counterpoints in the scherzo of 4, say, don't always tell as characterfully as the 1960s Parisian classics but the cycle works wonderfully well on its own terms. But turn it up well (and brace yourself)!
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