Search - Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Pierre Boulez :: Ravel: Shéhérazade; Le Tombeau de Couperin; Debussy: Ballades de Villon

Extraordinary

D. Jack Elliot | Omaha, Nebraska | 12/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Boulez possesses a true mastery in this sort of repertoire. From scores such as these -- coloristic, impressionistic, heavily "perfumed," and not constructed according to the sonata forms and procedures of thematic development that are common to the Teutonic Romantic repertoire (which the French so quaintly called "sauerkraut," and made a point of avoiding in their music) -- Boulez draws performances of extraordinary sophistication where other interpreters offer merely ambience.



The reading of the Ravel Shéhérazade is a masterpiece of expressive subtlety and understatement. This was my first experience of the piece, and I listened to it alongside the recent recording by Sylvia McNair and the Boston Symphony with Seiji Ozawa. In Ozawa's hands the score is frankly boring, and the weakest part of the program on that album; but in Boulez's, the music simply glows from within, moving from each gorgeous expressive nuance to the next across a remarkable range of color and shading. Other reviewers here find von Otter's voice unidiomatic for this music, but I certainly liked her singing better than I did McNair's. Von Otter blends better with the orchestra, and matches Boulez well with her own nuance and timbral shading.



The rest of the album rounds out the Shéhérazade well. We have the familiar Pavane for a Dead Princess, and an excellent reading of Le Tombeau de Couperin. There are two lesser-known orchestral songs by Debussy as well, adding depth to the program and making it an invaluable addition to any collection of classical music.



The Cleveland Orchestra has been called the finest American orchestra of recent years, and they certainly sound as though they might be with their playing here: it's masterful, carefully controlled and unfailingly well-judged."

A catch-all of Ravel and Debussy, worthy mostly for Boulez

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/17/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"At 80 Boulez hasn't lost his touch with the music that made him famous to begin with. His Debussy and Ravel are uncannily transparent, and the Cleveland Orchestra, which was thre with him on CBS in the Sevenites, plays with a pure glow. I am not so sure about the rest, however. Except for Sheherasade, this is all pretty minor. That exotic song cycle is miscasst--Von Otter never has been a sensual singer, and now that age has added a hard edge to her voice in high notes and loud passages, her version is deprived of something Ravel always needs: seductiveness. A pity, since Boulez's accompanimet is exquisite.



There is nothing very vital in the Ravel half of the CD. Pavane for a Dead Princess is flat and uninflected. The Tombeau de Couperin is precise and flawless but a bit mincing. The Debussy half of the program contains nothing that held my attention. The Dance for Harp and Strings is languid musical wallpaper, and Alison Hagley displays a lovely voice but little interpretive affinity for the two song cycles.



In all, the orchestra, DG's beautiful sonics, and Boulez are on the plus side, but interest flags during an hour of gossamer shimmer."