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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
A helpful record store owner sold me an LP of Pierre Monteux conducting The London Symphony Orchestra performing Debussy Orchestral work - Images, Le Matyre de San Sebastian. Since then I have not heard a better performance. While some later recordings are 'cleaner' more free of underlying tape hiss, Monteux's simply pleases more than others. It just sounds 'right'.
So it is with this set. It is beautifully balanced between orchestra and choir, the individual instruments to the fore as needed for punctuation and a truly remarkable engineering of the original tapes. I believe that Monteux favoured the 20th Century composers for their spacious scores and inventive colours and textures; all of those things are brought out in this recording. The 2nd movement - Malguena - in Rhapsodie Espagnole pefectly demonstrates this, full of light and shade, the dynamic contrasts are present,the Oboe emerges from the black background clear, plaintive, yearning. Brilliant!
The Rhapsodie, coupled with Daphnis and Chloe and The Pavane this makes a wonderful representation of Ravel's breathtaking 20th Century music, highly recommended.
So it is with this set. It is beautifully balanced between orchestra and choir, the individual instruments to the fore as needed for punctuation and a truly remarkable engineering of the original tapes. I believe that Monteux favoured the 20th Century composers for their spacious scores and inventive colours and textures; all of those things are brought out in this recording. The 2nd movement - Malguena - in Rhapsodie Espagnole pefectly demonstrates this, full of light and shade, the dynamic contrasts are present,the Oboe emerges from the black background clear, plaintive, yearning. Brilliant!
The Rhapsodie, coupled with Daphnis and Chloe and The Pavane this makes a wonderful representation of Ravel's breathtaking 20th Century music, highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a lovely Daphnis - and true pleasure from start to finish. Every time I listen to it I just go back to the start to listen again. It is well recorded and wonderfully played ... full of colour but never garish. And it has a pulse that draws you through, that reminds you that this is a story and not just a collection of scenes. The other items - the Rapsodie Espagnole and the Pavane Pour Une Infante Devunte - are equally outstanding. Mr (?) Yates' review above sounds a little vague but gets it exactly right when he says "Monteux's simply pleases more than others. It just sounds 'right'"
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Monteux the Magnificent!
13 April 2006
Format:Audio CD
The merger of Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips under the Universal corporate umbrella has led to the inevitable sharing of music and marketing plans. Now one of DG's most successful reissue programs, the mid-priced "Originals" line, has been expanded to include Decca titles, presumably in an attempt to streamline the company's overall look in the classical marketplace. While many of these initial releases don't appeal to me personally, one that I'm delighted to see available once again is Pierre Monteux's glorious 1959 stereo recording of Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe." This performance has been previously available on CD in the old "Classic Sound" series, but it has been out-of-print for several years, and until very recently fetching absurd prices as a rare collector's item. Monteux's magnificent account of the complete ballet with the London Symphony Orchestra has to be considered one of the very best, along with renditions by Ansermet, Cluytens, Inghelbrecht and Munch (see my reviews). Included to round out this disc are Monteux's 1961 recordings of "Pavane pour une infante defunte" and "Rapsodie Espagnole," which were also part of the original "Classic Sound" CD, and more recently were available as part of the "Ravel Orchestral Favourites" Monteux title in the now defunct Philips "50" series. In all, these are priceless Ravel performances, finally for sale at a reasonable price.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
The sexiest Daphnis on record!
13 April 2006
Format:Audio CD
This is the kind of re-release that can bring tears to the eyes of a grown man. Years ago I gave away my then copy of the first CD release assuming it would be easy to replace. I was wrong. I am glad Monteux's Daphnis is available again now, in its finest sonic reincarnation yet. It is the kind of legendary performance (and an audiophile delight, too!) that should never have been out of the catalogue in the first place. 'Nuff said...
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Daphnis and Chloe from the conductor who premiered it
19 Jun 2006
Format:Audio CD
Was any conductor better than Pierre Monteux at being in the right place at the right time? As the pit conductor for Diaghilev's Ballet Russe, he premiered Petruskha in 1911, Daphnis and Chloe in 1912, and the Rite of Spring in 1913--amazing. Here, nearly half a century later, his reading of Daphnis seems as authentic as it could possibly be. We get balletic rhythms, pointed French phrasing, an absence of sentimentality, and an intuitive feeling for Ravel's meshing of classic-erotic.
If you like Daphnis to be ultra lush, sexy, sweeping, or fervent, this isn't the recording for you. Monteux's Ravel is glittering but a bit brisk. There's a certain toughness that I like; it's totally at odds with the glib sophistication of Dutoit or the x-ray vision of Boulez. I can imagine living with only this account, especially given Decca's vintage sound, probably the best in the business in 1959. The only flaw I can hear is some overload in the loudest tutties. The LSO had picked up the Gallic style from Monteux, and quite often I could have sworn I heard ringers from Paris who had sneaked across the Channel.
Monteux wasn't reliably energetic and alert in his eighties, and the main filler, Rapsodie espagnole, from two years later, sounds a bit slack and slow. But his devotees will be happy to have it, and the Daphnis alone is worth the price of the CD, a classic in every way.
If you like Daphnis to be ultra lush, sexy, sweeping, or fervent, this isn't the recording for you. Monteux's Ravel is glittering but a bit brisk. There's a certain toughness that I like; it's totally at odds with the glib sophistication of Dutoit or the x-ray vision of Boulez. I can imagine living with only this account, especially given Decca's vintage sound, probably the best in the business in 1959. The only flaw I can hear is some overload in the loudest tutties. The LSO had picked up the Gallic style from Monteux, and quite often I could have sworn I heard ringers from Paris who had sneaked across the Channel.
Monteux wasn't reliably energetic and alert in his eighties, and the main filler, Rapsodie espagnole, from two years later, sounds a bit slack and slow. But his devotees will be happy to have it, and the Daphnis alone is worth the price of the CD, a classic in every way.
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