Customer Reviews

Debussy: La Mer; Prélude à L'Apres-midi d'un Faune ( Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) / Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2; Bolero ~ Karajan

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

 

 

To celebrate Karajan's centenary, DG has been re-releasing some of his most notable recordings with their original LP jackets. Casual observers of Karajan's career -- and those who denigrate it, of course -- would be surprised that Debussy and Ravel count among his best composers. In fact, they do -- witness not just this collection but an astonishingly evocative and sensitive Ravel CD for EMI. What makes Karajan such a superb French conductor isn't just precision and clarity, two virtues we associate with this genre, but his poetic imaginaiton.

Where Boulez is crystalline and sparkling in La Mer, Karajan is romantic and delicate. He expresses the music in long sweeps of feeling, but each bar is full of color and nuance. As familiar as La Mer is, to go beyond mere scene-painting (wind, waves, foam, etc.) is difficult. To my ears, Karajan's interpretation rises to the very top, but you must be able to open your ears to it, since this isn't Munch-Ansermet-Boulez. The other reviewer who used the word 'erotic' isn't far off the mark when it comes to Karajan's Bolero and Daphnis et Chloe readings.

Enough said to true believers, and I suppose nothing would be enough for naysayrs. The remastered 1965 analog recording sounds gorgeous in its detail and warmth; the Berliners play like gods, and Karajan's contorl seems superhuman. But that's what carpers complain aoubt, isn't it (even as they extol Toscanini for the same thing)? So be it. This CD deserves to stand among his classic recordings.

I got this disc, then rejected it immediately because it sounded as if the Germans were trying to out-conduct the French with their own music, but then I kept returning to listen to it over and over. It is intensely erotic and a very precise reading of all four pieces.

La Mer is a deep Mediterranean sea, dark warm salt water, not just the light shimmering on its surface. Faune is hot and erotic under the searing Grecian sun; one can almost see him stretching and yawning under the dappled shade of the trees, goat feet tapping. Karajan's reading of the Daphnis et Chloe suite No. 2, literally Part III of the complete ballet, is the most dazzling I have ever heard, enough to give you goosebumps. No chorus is used but somehow I don't miss it, for the bird-calls sing triumphantly as the dawn swells over the mountains regardless. Only the Bolero I find merely adequate, but then this piece has been so over played since its premiere, at performances and in film, that it says something about Karajan's recording that it still doesn't bore.

So there it is, this album is intoxicating on a hot August afternoon, as if standing on a cliff overlooking the Aegean while nymphs and satyrs hide secretively in the dark cool woods behind you. Worth the purchase.

You have to hand it to Deutche Grammophon. They had already put out what many consider the benchmark rendition of 'La Mer". Who could question their beautiful Boulez recording? Well, some few do, even those who love Boulez. OK, you could go with the Bernstein. I love him, but not on that one. Or, leaving DG, there is the redoubtable Dutoit.

But going way back to 1965, von Karajan did his own take. And a crisp, vivid one it is. Not in a Germanic way, but splashing in the surf and not languid. Yet there is tremendous control over the strings to couch the other sections in a way that connects with the guiding spirit. So the percussives and such are the sparkling foam on the sea Debussy intended.

You will be pleased with the sonic quality of this recording, making the rest of the selections worth the ride.

Can't go wrong here (who'd have guessed that von Karajan could sound so French?!) But I still prefer Haitink in Debussy and, surprisingly, Ozawa in Ravel. Neither of whom, of course, is French, either. They just sound more evocative in this music to me.

You've really got to watch Deutsche Grammophon. They record a lot of good music very well, but if you don't watch them, they'll get you to pay for it twice, or pay more for it than you need to.

For instance, it appears that exactly the same recordings that this CD offers are available for $2 less: Ravel: Bolero/Daphnis Et Chloé/Debussy:La Mer/Prelude a l'apres-Midi D'un Faune.

Further, these famous recordings by Karajan and the Berlin PO of Ravel's Bolero and Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune are also available with a famous recording by them of Mussorgsky's Pictures as orchestrated by Ravel: Ravel: Bolero; Debussy, Mussorgsky / Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. But if you get that CD, there is no way to get Karajan's recordings of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe or of Debussy's La Mer without purchasing the same recordings twice!

What a world. Just for this crap I've deducted a star from DG - though the recordings themselves appear to be absolutely unimpeachable, there is no reason to pay $2 extra or pay for any of them twice.

Unless money is really no object - in which case feel free to click right on over to my wish list and send me some stuff, not hesitating to max out your collection of credit cards on my sincerely grateful behalf - we have to find a solution, and here is the best I can find: Get the album that includes the Mussorgsky, because Karajan's recording of Daphnis et Chloe is not particularly famous, while the three recordings on that album (Pictures, Bolero, Prelude a l'a...) are each among famous the most famous of those pieces.

Then, if you want a recording of Daphnis et Chloe, by far the most famous seems to be the one by Monteux: Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé; Rapsodie espagnole; Pavane. (That is the complete ballet, while Karajan's recording is the "Suite 2" based on it. There do not seem to be any especially famous recordings of the suite, but one that appeals to me is New York Philharmonic: Daphnis Et Chloe Suite 2 / L'Oiseau De Feu, and the Penguin Guide gave it four stars out of four.)

As for La Mer, while Karajan's recording does seem to be fairly famous, Boulez's recording seems to be at least as famous if not moreso: Debussy: La Mer / Nocturnes / Jeux / Rhapsodie pour clarinette et orchestre - The Cleveland Orchestra / Pierre Boulez. An advantage of that recording is that it also features several other interesting works by Debussy. Another interesting and apparently famous recording of La Mer is by Munch: Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3; Debussy: La Mer; Ibert: Escales [Hybrid SACD], which seems to be more famous for the Saint-Saens, but also seems to be the most famous recording of Ibert's obscure piece. I think it may be worth shelling out for both of those even if you're going to get Karajan's recording as well.

Well, this is not based much on my own expertise, but on several hours of research on the internet and with various guides (Penguin, Gramophone, 1001 Recordings, the DG 2008 catologue, and Dubal's book). But I hope it enables you to get famous recordings without purchasing EXACTLY the same ones multiple times!

(DG's gotten me twice: I have exact duplicates of Brahms 4th Symphony by Karajan and the Berlin PO, and of Brahms' string quartets by the Amadeus Quartet. I am now dedicated to foiling their villiany! Actually I love DG, but all the same... money's money! And if you happen to be in the market for those pieces - it's completely irrelevant to the album I'm "reviewing" but I'm on a roll here friends - let me recommend EMI Great Recordings of Century - Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4/Klemperer and despite the price Brahms: String Quartets Op. 67, Op. 51 No.1 with Brahms: String Quartet, Op. 51 & Piano Quintet, Op. 34.)