Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé / La Valse - Berliner Philharmoniker / Pierre Boulez

Maurice Ravel (Composer), Pierre Boulez (Conductor), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Pierre Boulez
• Composer: Maurice Ravel
• Audio CD (September 19, 1995)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B000001GPI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,015 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best complete Daphnis on disc, April 1, 2000

By 

Greg Hales (Vacaville, Ca USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé / La Valse - Berliner Philharmoniker / Pierre Boulez (Audio CD)

This recording of Ravel's masterpiece is simply stunning. This is Boulez's second recording of the complete ballet. His understanding of the music, phrasing, shading come out in every bar. His is aided by the peerless Berlin Philharmonic. This is the BPO first recording of the complet ballet, it is also the best played. The orchestra plays effortlessly and colors the music wonderfully. They are able to bring their wonderfully huge sound to the big moments and also play with great lightness and grace so solo's come through as they should. Terrific flute solo in the final part of the ballet. This is a great album showing a great partnership between the BPO and Pierre Boulez. Little need to be said about La Valse other than it's a great performance.

Highest recommendation.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ravel and Boulez make a great synergism, March 1, 2000

By 

scarecrow "scarecrow" (Chicago, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé / La Valse - Berliner Philharmoniker / Pierre Boulez (Audio CD)

I am coming to admire Boulez's Ravel more everyday, much more than his Debussy. And I don't consider the two as most as representations of musical impressionism. Both were master innovators of sound. And Ravel was at bit more sensitive to the orcehstral pallette. This massive score needs someone with a global vision of the work, its exquisite timbres are actually contained in quite conventional forms, repetition. However the fast and filigree woodwinds and the divisi strings, and the large palette of string harmonics makes this a feast for the ears. Yet there are moments of sublime ugliness, the muted brass or whenever the density accelerates with held brass chords. Boulez was the first actually to take away the movie music elements in this music, having a great discipline toward the rhyhthm and sound. Great refined and gentle playing is what's here. The music is understood very deeply.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a Thrill!!!, June 17, 2003

By 

Shota Hanai (Torrance, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé / La Valse - Berliner Philharmoniker / Pierre Boulez (Audio CD)

Boulez is one of my favorite conductors living today. I simply love his Grammophone performances on almost all of the post-romantic pieces I heard on radio and CD - starting with Debussy's La Mer (which one him Grammys), Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin, and Stravinsky's Firebird (Complete Version) - the only exception was the Rite of Spring.

This CD is deninitely no exception. When I heard "Daphnis and Chloe" for the first time on a radio station with the Berlin Phil under Boulez, I loved it! The orchestra was good, the choir was great, and the sound quality was definitely nice. But it was the finale which really made me to never hesitate to buy the CD. I later tested other performances on the ballet, but nothing seems to overpower Boulez's interpretation, the orchestra's massive frenzy, the choir's dynamic "Ahhs", and the percussion alone was thumbs up! His finale is the best Daphnis finale ever!!! If you haven't heard the ballet, never hesitate to buy this CD.