Customer Reviews

César Franck: Monteux; Igor Stravinsky: Pétrouchka

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a pity that the name Pierre Monteux has been all but forgotten by so many save those such as myself who had a chance to witness him at work as well as purchase his recordings. Hopefully those who have not had a chance or are not aware of this great conductor will have a chance to become familiar with his artistry.

Monteux's career went back to the early 20th century. His earliest claim was the controversial premier of Stravinsky's "La Sacre du Printemps" in 1913 in Paris which is well documented. Even now, almost 90 years later, that performance is still legendary.

Monteux was not limited to music of the French repetoire. His Beethoven was outstanding including a never released live recording of his 85th birthday concert with the Boston Symphony of the 9th Symphony. A pity. It was quite a birthday present from the BSO for the conductor!

The Franck was recorded around 1961 and remains as one of the definitive performances of this symphony. It was also before the time (1963) when Chicago's orchestra hall was remodeled and ruined its superlative recording accoustics. RCA's engineers were able to take full advantage of the hall's recoding capabilities. (Oddly enough while the hall had great recording accoustics it was rather poor for the general audiances. One of the best places to sit during a concert was in the first couple of rows in the gallery. Playing on stage during a rehearsal also presented accoustical problems as well for the musicians).

There is not too much in the way of superlatives that can be added to those all ready heaped upon this recording. Monteux was able to take advantage of the CSO's then world class brass section which really shines in full force. This was still in those golden Reiner years when the CSO was at its peak. He does not over-do some of the sections - a problem that some conductors have with this work.

For those who have not discovered "papa" Monteux, this is an excellent chance to do so. He was well loved by those who came to hear him as well as those who played under him. If you are satisfied with the Franck - and there is no reason why you shouldn't be - explore some of his other recordings including Stravinsky, Beethoven, Haydn and the French masters. You won't go wrong!

This CD is something special. The Franck has been famous ever since it was recorded 40 years ago. The recording is still amazing (although the loudest brass passages sound a bit garish), and Monteux's interpretation is full of joy.

Petrushka is still better. Monteux plays the fuller 1911 version of the score. He had conducted the premiere, and all that experience pays off here. You really feel all Petrushka's emotions in this performance. You won't find a better bargain than this.

This is a nice disc of two heavily recorded favorite pieces. Pierre Monteux, through his long association with this music, has an authority that is justified here. The Frank Symphony is rousing. The CSO performs the music flawlessly. I had not heard it for some time and it was great to make its acquaintance again. This recording of Petrouchka uses the 1911 score, which may take some listeners by surprise since the drum rolls between the scenes are absent. The ballet is beautifully recorded and Pierre Monteux and the Boston Symphony are in top form. It is interesting to know that the conductor, who premiered this work, never ceased making small tempo changes here and there, always trying to give a different presentation of the ballet.

This disc is part of the remastered Living Stereo series and has transferred remarkably well. Even if you have other recordings of these works, these should be part of your collection.

Monteux and the CSO give the best recording I have heard of the Franck symphony-- it is justly famous. However, the remastering is awful. I have compared this cd with an earlier cd issue from the library and this new remastering has removed the power and fullness of the music. Some new detail emerges in this remastering but the price is too high. I have found the same problem with other RCA "Living Sterio" discs like the Reiner/CSO recording of Also Sprach Zarathustra or the Pines of Rome. My advice is to look for older used cds with these recordings.

.... The conducting is amazing--such rubato! There is hardlytwo beats that are the same duration--and yet the music justflows!

Chicago forces give a pumped-up performance that fitsMonteux's view superlatively--and really makes waste of Monteux's SanFrancisco forces, ... nothing like the excellent group that residesthere now!

It's quite an experience.

To qualify this interpretation is to name securely the most symphonic achievement of Monteux along his long and interesting career .
The Franck Symphony is a real challenge for any conductor . Since you have to create a inner tension state without falling in effectism or glamorous fireworks who may be considered cool for the new listener of this work but that approach will carry to tedious sooner or later .
Monteux knew to make "breathe" the work . And therefore he never struggles with overwhelming rubatos or melodramatic soap approach .
The Chicago Symphony worked out perfectly and made one of the top line performances and even historical recordings in the XX century.

Those recordings are real jewels and marvelously compilated in one CD.
The first, the Franck's symphony, has been an absolute reference since
ita was released in LP. Maestro Monteux did a brilliant and crystal-clear
performance that still hasn't found a match. Wonderful performance in an
absolutely good stereo sound. The other work is Stravinsky's Petrouchka.
Monteux did the premiere of this work, so anyone could expect another
reference recording, and so it is. Monteux really captures the essence,
drama and parody in this work, and so does a really magic and compelling
performance conducting a top form Boston Symphony Orchestra, then under
his direction. Only Boulez with his Sony recording can match this recording,
so this will be still a reference for ages.

I'm getting weary with Papa Franck and Papa Monteux rhapsodies that STILL abound after all these years. Just when you think the sap is thinning out a bit, a review comes along that makes things all sticky sweet again. ...

Monteux was an accessible, communicative, oftentimes interpretatively astringent artist whose walrus physical appearance led the press to assign a persona to him that was not necessarily true. Oftentimes he was maddeningly sloppy, even unprepared, and as we give his recorded output more consideration, we finally come to notice he too often didn't get the standard of performance he could have.

This disk of Franck and Stravinsky is a case-in-point. The Chicago Symphony was a lousy choice for RCA to do a Monteux remake of this work, back in 1960. His '48 San Francisco reading was leagues better--lean, powerful, responsive, dramatic amid some scruff here and there. The CSO gives him Parsifal brass, Ringstrasse winds, heft and heave that makes the work heavy-footed and Teutonic to the point of distraction.

To make matters worse, the recording session orchestral set up with violins divided across the front, gives a pretty lame impression of an attempt to lighten the texture through neo-choral presentation. All it adds is busyness in a dark, turgid proceeding. It's not pleasant and it's certainly not Franck. It's Monteux allowing himself to be led around by Lewis Layton and his engineers. Yet this has been the fashionable Franck production for those who do not truly listen to Franck performance paradigms they expound.

The Stravinsky is quite a bit better (and an odd coupling), and again, we get some shaky chording that could have been supervised better and a reading that goes some way away from the dance that this ballet is. Overall, the performance is nicely proportioned and finished, though, but only better than the conductor'searlier Paris effort due to more expert execution. Yet, both recordings show little executive scraps, leavings, debris that give the impression of slovenliness.

All this renders this issue a Monteux document, more informative of what it says about him than it does of the music at hand. For the Franck, get Monteux's confrere Paray on Mercury and have a powerful, dramatic, colorful, transluscent, kinetic and, above all, Gallic experience of the lion that the composer was. For the Stravinsky, grab Antal Dorati in Minneapolis or Detroit for a compelling dance theatre experience where you can smell the sweat and feel the grit of the boards...and why the music was so revolutionary.

Sorry to say, comparative listening renders this Monteux release to the dusky corner of a memorial. I urge everyone to look into Monteux's very fine Beethoven, Brahms, and Debussy (a bit sloppy again but wonderful) for the artist at his best. With these we begin to wonder at what could have been if Monteux had worked more along those lines.

I hope you don't mind the intro. i am really that way. for this review i give it 5 stars because i want to give credit to those who don't inspire children at all. It is only a few brave souls that don't want to speak/sing to young children and not be accused about giving the wrong message. most people would try to voice there opion and become an unorganized, untalented, slop professor. You are brave and i comend you on your exelent work on that even though your cd may be bad.