Search - Maurice Ravel, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Minnesota Orchestra :: Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé Suites; Ma Mère l'Oye; Valses nobles et sentimentales [Hybrid SACD]

Ravel, Minnesota, Skrowaczewski 2: YES: Treasures from the P

Dan Fee | Berkeley, CA USA | 05/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Remember the brief, good old days of quad? Various labels, Vox included, were experimenting with ways to get four channel sound out of the long-playing vinyl platter. I believe the old USA RCA label had a discrete four channel system that actually cut four separate channels into the otherwise 2-sided LP groove. This meant you had to have a special cartridge/needle combo to safely ride and reproduce the four tracks cut into the groove. Never took off. Others, EMI and Vox among them choose the matrixed sound path, rather like the ways FM radio was matrixing a stereo signal into its carrier waves, so that your home receiver could decode it down to two channels in your home.



A complete set of the Ravel orchestral music was recorded in Minnesota with the era's music director, Stanislav Skrowaczewski. Like the golden era recordings of the old Mercury Golden Presence label, the engineers adopted a deliberate minimalist miking strategy. Once they found what they thought was the sweet spot, they just left the microphones alone, and let Ravel and the orchestra do the rest. Then we got these wonderful performances, highly lauded from the moment they hit the streets, on vinyl with four channels of matrixed sound. You could listen in regular stereo, or if you had the matrix decoder, get four.



Now we are really well into the surround sound era, thanks mainly to how home theater got all of us to finally upgrade our hardware. Since we already have the equipment for movies, and now for HD television; we have little reason not to let our music collections into the mix. And, voila. These master tapes revive, standing up to something like their original audible stature, thanks to the new high resolution Superaudio format. Pentatone is doing something similar to what Mobil Fidelity is doing here, with those almost forgotten quad master tapes; and what a nice surprise - the sound couldn't be better.



The Minnesota Orchestra of the era wasn't particularly known for its French tradition or influences as such. If anything, the Boston Symphony had inherited that crown prince designation when Koussevitsky arrived from Paris, bringing star French players with him. Then Pierre Monteux, Charles Munch helped maintain that legacy once the big K was gone. The Jean Martinon period in Chicago never really took root, and so as time passed, the Montreal Symphony and Charles Dutoit inherited the nomination for outstanding French orchestra outside of France. Nevertheless, these are utterly superb captures of a sophisticated Ravelian orchestral fabric - replete with finesse, sheen, silver - all polished to high gloss. This will remind one perhaps of the famous Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, reflecting light in all directions. And raising almost metaphysical questions of just what is real, and what is reflection, in the cross-hatch of all the refracted light.



Skrowaczewski knows well enough to let Ravel speak, without intruding. No mannerisms or oddities mar the music, either at the musical surfaces or in the melancholy or grotesque, subtle depths lurking beneath their polish. Tempos are consistently well chosen for the piece at hand. Ma Mere may have started life as a set of piano pieces for some children of Ravel's friends, but by the time we get to their orchestration here, we are in the presence of sheer genius, expressing sheer delight in the most exquisite manner. There is still plenty of flash and fire when the music calls for it, but nothing, nothing is out of balance. And throughout all we hear lots of that French sensual intoxication with all things North African. Tourists are still going to far places to smoke kif and indulge in love-making with the local service industry that still knows where to find them.



Whatever you may think of French tourists smoking kif or the more hedonistic undergrounds in the North African tourist industry - As music: This is all simply marvelous to hear, especially in surround sound that finally yields up for our ears what has been sleeping on these old master tapes, all along.



This disc offers us the aural equivalent of that French intoxication, more often than not done with a slow, knowing hand that feels what it is reaching out to touch, namely, you. The Ma Mere L'oye, Daphnis, and Valse nobles are outstanding. Each of these works is simply so fine that they make Ravel's case as one of the acknowledged Great Composers of the West, all over again. What a felicity that Vox had the imagination and guts to go to Minneapolis, and get all this down, just when the other major labels had seemingly forgotten that Minnesota ever had a great orchestra. These Ravel performances will wear extremely well, no matter who else does them in surround sound and high resolution superaudio or dvd-audio. The only sad thing about this disc is when it inevitably ends, having played through. One could only have wished that Vox had been willing to get the full score of Daphnis from these sessions, the recording of the suites is so very finely done.



(You will find a second equally fine disc from these Minnesota sessions, also in surround sound superaudio from Mobile Fidelity. Plus, you can get their St. Louis sessions with Walter Susskind, which captured a very fine Smetana cycle of Ma Vlast, along with a rich and dramatic vision of Holst's Planets suite for large orchestra. Do not diss Susskind, by the way, because he was highly regarded by other musicians, including the likes of Ginette Niveau, Heifitz, Rubinstein, Milstein, Firkusny, Ricci, and Artur Schnabel. Nor is St. Louis confined to being a regional band: it is one of USA's oldest orchestras.)



Five stars. Is that enough? Hardly. This disc and its companion are simply among the true peaks in the mountain ranges of the history of recorded music. They may be equaled, but probably will never be bettered. Very highly recommended. Indeed."

Warm Subtle Ravel beautifully recorded.

W. Chiles | San Francisco, CA USA | 05/26/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No getting around the fact that they overprice their remasterings, but the SACD version is somewhat worth the money as Original Masters is the only company that allows you to hear the original Vox Turnabout surround sound recordings from 1974. These were a revelation to me in college on a tight budget. For $9 at the time you could own a 3 disc box set of nearly all the orchestral works of Ravel, played by a fine modern orchestra with an outstanding new concert hall and conducted by an unheralded but brilliant musician. The Daphnis & Chloe performance is sadly of only the two suites, not the complete ballet but still worth hearing. Skowaceski conveys a diffuse quality to Ravel's scores that while transparent often leaves one wondering who is producing that beautiful sound. The surround channels carry acoustical ambiance save for the Dahpnis et Chloe suites where the chorus was positioned in the auditorium so they are heard from the rear channels. These sound more detailed and clear than the vox transfers. They manage to eliminate all distortion and clarify the sense of dimension in the SACD remastering. You sense exactly where the instruments are seated and feel you are seated in middle orchestra of their concert hall. A rave all around. I wish the Bolera disc was still available. it's a slow haunting reading of this overly familiar score and deserves to be heard. The out=of=print discs are going for over $120 on amazon! maybe they will bring that back. Meanwhile buy this while you can."

Fantastic Ravel!!!!!

A. Vetter | NY | 08/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is great stuff. You should buy the first issue and enjoy both issues. Great sound and great performances.

Bolero is such a surprise and i enjoyed it completely.

Daphnis and Chloe is wonderful.

Enjoy the sound and shock. Can't beat it.

Both CD's are great!!!!!!!!!!"