Lalo / Chausson / Ravel: SYMPHONIE ESPAGNOLE / POEME / Tzigane

Edouard Lalo (Artist), Ernest Chausson (Artist), Maurice Ravel (Artist), Kent Nagano (Artist), Vadim Repin (Artist), London Symphony Orchstra (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 19, 1999)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Erato
• ASIN: B0000206AN
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,752 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Symphonie espagnole Op. 21: I. Allegro non troppo

2. Symphonie espagnole Op. 21: II. Scherzando (allegro molto)

3. Symphonie espagnole Op. 21: III. Intermezzo (allegretto non tropo)

4. Symphonie espagnole Op. 21: IV. Andante

5. Symphonie espagnole Op. 21: V. Rondo

6. Počme Op. 25

7. Tzigane - rapsodie de concert

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sizzling Repin in Classic French Works for the Violin, etc., January 18, 2003

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lalo / Chausson / Ravel: SYMPHONIE ESPAGNOLE / POEME / Tzigane (Audio CD)

Vadim Repin's warm, vibrant tone sizzles in this excellent recording of three works for the violin and orchestra from three of France's greatest late 19th and early 20th Century composers. His performance of Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole is among the most passionate, distinguished versions I have yet heard of this work, replete with exquisite technical pyrotechnics from his violin bow and a warm, lush tone. The same holds true for his playing of Chausson's Poeme, while his performance of Ravel's Tzigane is just as fine. He is blessed with Kent Nagano's excellent conducting, providing brilliant flashes of orchestral color and tone from the London Symphony Orchestra. However, be warned that Teldec's sound engineers have emphasized the orchestra's playing in some passages, so that Repin's perfomance is occasionally overshadowed by the orchestra's. Still it is a splendid CD to acquire if only to have a fine example of Repin's playing.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't Gipsies count to four?, April 27, 2008

By 

Discophage (France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lalo / Chausson / Ravel: SYMPHONIE ESPAGNOLE / POEME / Tzigane (Audio CD)

As with the competing program played by Maxim Vengerov and Antonio Pappano which I reviewed recently (Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole; Saint-Saens: Violin Concerto; Ravel: Tzigane; Maxim Vengerov), I'll limit my comments to Ravel's Tzigane, as I have no particular insight into Chausson's Poem or Lalo's Symphonie espagnole - nor, with the latter, any particular appreciation of that popular but (in my opinion) vapid clap-trapper that would incite me to delve deeper. Judging from his Strauss Violin and Piano Sonata (Violin & Piano), Repin is an intense and forward-moving violinist, who, a little like Heifetz, never lets his lyricism spill over, and Nagano is a precise but cold conductor, with no penchant for the heart-on-sleeve sentimentality: these are exactly the qualities this kind of music needs, so I suspect this must be a good version, but I cannot vouch for it.

In Tzigane Repin isn't as ugly and vulgar as his compatriot Vengerov, but he goes one step in that direction. While the word that came to my mind listening to Vengerov's introductory cadenza was "brutal", the one I jotted down during Repin's similar passage was "brusque". He is one of those (numerous) violinists who seem to believe that to convey the Gipsy character of Ravel's piece they need to put paid to his rhythm and play accordion with tempo (as soon as the fifth measure). As the bio contained in the liner notes mentions, Repin and Vengerov shared the same (supposedly legendary) teacher, Zakhar Bron. Wonder if it's related? Sometimes with Repin it felt like tachycardia (when your heartbeat suddenly jumps berserk for a few seconds). I find it very insulting, both to the Gipsies (does Repin assume they can't they count to four like everybody else?) and to Ravel (does Repin think he didn't know how to notate precisely what he wanted?). Too bad, as Repin does have the biting attacks that the piece and its Gipsy character call for. Things get better with the entrance of the orchestra, and here Repin has all the swagger and drive and he is free of Vengerov's vulgar excesses. He is also laudable for his fine teamwork with the orchestra (virtuosic LSO) and his willingness to blend into its textures when needed rather than constantly dominate them. Like about everybody else he cheats in some places, like playing plucked chords where Ravel notated pizzicato triplets (8:33). Like many others he plays an unnotated "sul ponticello" at the beginning of the coda (8:41) but at least he doesn't add a vulgar tipsy portamento like Vengerov, and his coda has an irresistible frenzy, the "poco meno vivo" at 9:16 being hardly observed, like the wall clock from "L'Enfant et les sortilèges" gone totally berserk from having its pendulum broken off.

Excellent notes, making a very good case for Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, rightly insisting - and that may be a partial answer to some of the comments of the other reviewers - that the piece was NOT meant by Lalo as a concerto but, in the manner of Berlioz' Harold in Italy, as a Symphony Concertante, in which the soloist is part of the orchestra. But further, I obviously do not have the same kind of hearing as these other reviewers : the soloist is absolutely NOT covered by the orchestra, the balance is just fine and the reverb is NOT obtrusive. The orchestra does jump to striking and perhaps artificial presence at times, but that is when the violin is not playing.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love It, March 19, 2002

By 

Violinist (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lalo / Chausson / Ravel: SYMPHONIE ESPAGNOLE / POEME / Tzigane (Audio CD)

This is a great CD. Repin is a great player, and he does justice to all the compositions. The Lalo is wonderfull, although the last movement is not totaly clean, the style is great and it is a great listen. The Chausson does not have enough tension, and the overdone reverbration is obvious. The Ravel is strong, but it doesn't beat the Heifetz version!