Customer Reviews

Music of Paul Dukas

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

 

 

Here on one disk are three symphonic works by the French composer Paul Dukas: the famous Sorcerer's Apprentice, La Peri complete with opening fanfare, and his Symphony in C. Dukas today is better known as a teacher, theorist, and critic/writer and unfortunately his compositions are overshadowed by his orchestral miniature The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The works on this CD let us glimpse at his style; highly Romantic in intent, highly Classical in form, and highly impressionistic in orchestration and program, we can greatly see Dukas' influence on composers of his time and after.

The tone poem La Peri tells of a young man searching for a flower of immortality and finds a fairy asleep holding one. He takes it, but falls in love with the said fairy. The fairy awakens and gets it back by playing on the young mans emotions; the man loses both immortality and love. The music is lush, with expert composition for strings, woodwinds and horn (of note). Merging romanticism with French Impressionism, Dukas presents us with an imaginative and exciting orchestral tone poem. The famous fanfare features the Cincinnati brass section, along with astounding sonics, comes off very well. The Cincinnati brass is extremely tight and one of the most cohesive sounds I have heard in a long time.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice, composed as a joke, here is given a very clean performance. While adding nothing to the recording oeuvre, a delightful piece.

I am not quite sure why the Symphony in C by Dukas is so underplayed; I find it to be the most exciting French symphony of its time. Set in three movements (fast/slow/fast), it is highly romantic, with formal designs reaching back to Classical Era ideals. The melodies are very memorable and the harmonies and orchestrations are constantly confounding me as to where they are leading as well as at their innate beauty and excitement. Of particular note is the outgoing brass melody of the first movement portraying a rugged masculinity, the lyrical, expansively impressionistic, and greatly yearning middle movement, and the boisterous finale which never lags and ends the work with a rousing conclusion.

This recording is sonically amazing. All voices speak with incredible clearness. Jesus-Lopez Cobos leads the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with a very aggressive approach, showing the orchestras ability to play not only with great virtuosity, but with great sensitivity, which the music demands. The music is lush and engaging. It is nice to have an entire CD devoted to the symphonic music of Dukas, a voice who is rarely heard outside of one work and history books. If you like sweeping Romantic music, this CD is not to be missed.

Just about everyone has heard the Socerer's Apprentice, but rarely do we hear La Peri and the Symphony in C. Frankly I have heard more exciting playings of Sorcerer, but La Peri and the Symphony are splendidly done. I agree with the previous reviewer that the Cincinnati Symphony is one of the great orchestra's in the country and in the world right now. Don't hesitate to pick this little gem up.

This recording has been garnering praise, and deservedly so, for the magnificence of its sound and the superiority of the orchestral playing on display. Fair enough, but good sound is not enough to salvage a very disappointing performance of two of Dukas' most sensuous and evocative works, the Symphony in C major and La peri. This symphony, long a favorite of mine, gets a performance that I find simply dull. The music proceeds, dutifully, bar by bar, with little or no sense of incident. To give one example, Lopez-Cobos rushes from the first theme of the first movement into the second theme with no preparation, no sense of "letting up," no sense that a dramatic change is coming. As a result, the second theme itself (one of its composer's most haunting), while beautifully played, fails to register because the change in atmosphere has been too abrupt. I find myself still "coming off" the first theme and not having the time or preparation to "register" the second. The slow movement, too, lacks atmosphere (as does, alas, La peri), and the finale sounds too starchy. I suppose that, compared with Slatkin's unfortunate account this is, in all ways, a notable improvement, but the best "recent" performance of this symphony can be found on a 10-year-old Denon CD, where Jean Fournet conducts the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. Listen to that to hear what's missing from the present interpretation. Notice the "shyness," the introversion that Fournet brings to the second theme of the first movement, or the sense of unbounded joy that emerges in the finale. So while I admire Mr Lopez-Cobos for taking up the cause of this unjustly neglected work, and for bringing his orchestra to a point of polish and refinement that ought to be envied by every other American ensemble, I have to voice my disappointment.

This excellent sounding (recorded using the DSD process and then cut as a standard 16-bit CD) Telarc recording features music that will be familiar to most audiophiles, Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, along with some of Dukas's music that will be new to many listeners, La Péri and the Symphony in C. Both these pieces are enjoyable, particularly the former, which is the highlight of this CD. The Symphony in C is also enjoyable, sounding like a mix of classic and romantic approaches to symphonic composition.

For many audiophiles, though, I suspect that the real attraction of this release is going to be that old Fantasia favorite, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. The López-Cobos version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice seems somewhat restrained, and some might find it a bit tame, but such an approach does help the piece blend in better with the other pieces on this disk, which are capable of standing on their own merits as excellent compositions that need not stand in the shadow of their more popular sibling.

The sonics on this recording are also restrained, at least in the sense that Telarc has avoided making this disk into some sort of vulgar sonic spectacular, bringing us instead a natural and straightforward sonic portrait of the orchestra. All things considered, this CD is a welcome and worthwhile release.

This Telarc recording of the works of Paul Dukas joins what is becomming a crowded field of CD's. People who have grown up listening to the Sorcerer's Apprentice will delight in discovering La Peri and the Symphony in C. Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the Cinncinati Symphony do a very fine job playing these works, the sound from Telarc is better than ever thanks to the new Direct Stream Digital recording. We are quite lucky to have these works as Paul Dukas was quite self critical about his composing efforts. Jesus Lopez- Cobos and the Cinncinati Symphony prove that an American Orchestra can perform these works just as well as any European Orchestra.

Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra have done superb jobs with Paul Dukas's "Symphony in C" and "La Peri". This is the first time I've ever heard these two pieces, so I see no flaw in these performances. However, I have given this CD only four stars out of five, simply because of the disappointing "Sorcerer's Apprentice". I expected this piece to shine all the way though, with intensity and endurance. But Lopez Cobos conducts this with clear fluidity, and that's what makes this bland: there's no sheer power. Surprisingly, the Stokowski version found in the 1940 movie "Fantasia" has more ruggedness and strength.

But "Apprentice" aside, I absolutely love "La Peri" and "Symphony in C". "La Peri" reminds me of Debussy and Berlioz, and a bit of Respighi but without the Rimsky-Korsakov influence. "Symphony in C" may not be as good as Beethoven's "Sixth" or "Ninth", but it sure is a hell of a piece of art.

So get this for "Peri" and "Symphony", but search for a better "Apprentice."

Paul Dukas's Symphony in C major is truly a masterpiece, and I like it the best of all French symphonies. This performance is technically above reproach but interpretively leaves something to be desired. It is played so crisply and immaculately that it robs the music of atmosphere, and that is particularly fatal in the second movement Andante espressivo. For all the techinical precision, this performance ultimately lacks the kind of yearning intensity and romantic tendernes that this music clamors for. Jean Martinon's classic version (EMI) still remains a first choice. Jean Fournet's live recording with Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra is also recommendable.

First, the much-praised sound. It deserves the praise. This is music by what the French would call a "petit maitre" which was almost made for SACD. The Symphony is a fairly early work but shows Dukas the colourist and master-manipulator of the orchestra at his best. The first theme on the violins, the second on horns, then cellos and tromb ones are rhythmic and exciting. The slow movement (with its lovely blending of horns and violas and then of woodwinds and strings en masse) is full of nuance and a quite different range of pastel sounds, and the finale brings all these skills and sounds to bear.

Then the music and performance. Okay, so it's not Beethoven's ninth, or even Saint-Saens 3rd, but it is good and it is well worth hearing a few times. And you really do hear it, - not only is the excellent Cincinatti orchestra clearly enjoying the show, but Lopez-Cobos is able to exercise an overall discipline that makes this more than just a series of great sounds.

Having said that, I found almost nothing here which really grabbed me or which had an emotional impact. Yes, its all brilliant and disciplined, but there seems little real engagement with the charm of the music by either conductor or orchestra.

The DSD recording is excellent in both 16 bit and SACD stereo, - everything is captured openly and without strain, and I cant wait to hear it in multichannel. However, its only the sound i want to hear that way, its not really the performance, virtuosic though it is.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is one of the world's great musical ensembles, however, because it is not located in a major media market,the orchestra's superb recordings are often neglected by critics in favor of often over-rated orchestras in larger American and European markets. The orchestra is arguably in the American "top five". Jesus Lopez-Cobos is one of the great conductors of his generation and one listen to this recording reveals why. The new technology Telarc-DSD sound is simply spectacular, but more importantly the performance is magnificent--as usual.

I have to agree with the last reviewer, not some of the previous ones. I think these performances are just tremendous and the orchestral playing is superb. However, I find the symphony itself to be something of a bore. It is nice that Telarc decided to record it but I cannot imagine ever listening to it for sheer pleasure. Dukas was simply not talented enough to write a symphonic masterpiece. If you want to listen to a great French symphony that is not played very often, I suggest you try the Symphony in B flat by Chausson. You will probably hate it or love it, but it really has something to say. And you might also like the rarely played 2nd Symphony of Saint-Saens.