Search - Maurice Ravel, Claudio Abbado, London Symphony Chorus :: Maurice Ravel: Boléro/Daphnis Et Chloé/Alborada

A different take on 'Daphnis'

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had always thought that one of Abbado's best periods was his directorship of the London Sym. in the late Seventies -- he was then at a peak of vigor and exuberance. This "Daphnis and Chloe," recorded in 1988, postdates that heyday, but it has all the same stuff. I've never heard a more robust, less mincing version -- or a more welcome one. It is by turns jagged, orgiastic, passionate, and neurotic -- in ohter words, genuinely modern music.



The Gramophone reviewer complained that Abbado wasn't atmospheric enough, but for me, the absence of gauzy atmospherics works well. One can't imagine a more viscerally dramatic account, and DG's engineers have gone out of their way to produce the widest possible dynamics (the first 30 seconds are a true ppp, but don't turn up the volume, because the climax builds to a true fff). The LSO plays with great enthusiasm, and the only fault is some digital glare in the recorded sound.



Expressed this boldly, I got an entirely new appreciation for Ravel's masterpiece. Munch and Monteux aren't displaced, but here is an exciting addition to the top tier."