Debussy: La mer, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune – Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole

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Since the appointment of François-Xavier Roth as guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Debussy and Ravel have been showing up increasingly often on concert programs there, and this is all to the good. This release from the orchestra's LSO Live label collects music from three such concerts, touching on three of the most familiar French Impressionist pieces of all. Yet there's no sense of going through the motions in these performances. There are enough interesting details in Roth's readings to make it difficult to summarize his approach, but in general, he manages the difficult trick of taking quick tempos without skating over Debussy's complex surfaces. Consider the Prélude a l'après-midi d'une Faune, which hardly seems to need another recording to add to the hundreds on the market, but Roth's reading is distinctive. At 9:37, he's a good minute faster than many of his competitors, including the Mark Elder Hallé version (although slower than that of the famously dry Pierre Boulez with the Cleveland Orchestra). The result is a performance that has a good deal of tension even as the faun frolics among the nymphs. La Mer is delicate and remarkably controlled with an uncannily glassy "De l'aube à midi sur la mer," and Ravel's Rhapsodie espagnole is crisply rhythmic while never sinking to mannerism. In all, despite a somewhat unconventional quality, these recordings of French standards are as absorbing as one could wish.
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