Panorama: Gabriel Fauré

Andreas Schmidt (Performer), Gérard Souzay (Performer), Gabriel Faure (Composer), Carlo Maria Giulini (Conductor), Seiji Ozawa (Conductor), Stephen Cleobury (Conductor), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Performer), Philharmonia Orchestra of London (Orchestra), Philharmonia Orchestra (Orchestra), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Timothy Farrell (Performer), James Vivian (Performer), Alfons Kontarsky (Performer), Aloys Kontarsky (Performer), Dalton Baldwin (Performer), Pascal Rogé (Performer), Kathleen Battle (Performer), Lorraine Hunt (Performer), Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Andreas Schmidt, Gérard Souzay, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Timothy Farrell, James Vivian, et al.
• Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Philharmonia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Carlo Maria Giulini, Seiji Ozawa, Stephen Cleobury
• Composer: Gabriel Faure
• Audio CD (August 14, 2001)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00005IB63
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,843 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #18 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Strings > Harp
  • #56 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Vocal Non-Opera > Anthems
  • #88 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Early Music > Forms & Genres > Requiems

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another highly recommendable Panorama compilation, January 21, 2012

By 

Ralph Moore "Ralph operaphile" (Bishop's Stortford, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Panorama: Gabriel Fauré (Audio CD)

So many of these double CD Panorama anthologies from DG are praiseworthy - their Mendelssohn and Sibelius spring to mind amongst many others - and this one is no exception. Having done something of a survey of available Requiems recently, I still endorse above all the simple beauty of the old EMI recording from King's College but this one, too, has its charms. It's still slightly too etiolated and enervated for my taste; there is always a temptation in this music to prettify it and linger over it excessively but if any conductor knows how to indulge in leisurely tempos without losing the pulse, it's Giulini. He draws out lovely, poised singing and playing from the Philharmonia forces, also highlighting orchestral detail that I haven't been aware of in murkier versions such as the over-reverberant, over-reverential recording from Toulouse by Michel Plasson. He has excellent soloists in the straightforward Schmidt and the ethereal Kathy Battle, although again, I prefer a good treble and less operatic voices for this sweetest and simplest of music.

The programme here is biased towards Fauré's vocal music but I do not mind when that means we hear the velvety mezzo of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (often sounding uncannily like Janet Baker) in Mélisande's Song in his gorgeously Romantic suite "Pelléas et Mélisande", full of lush, swooning, post-Wagnerian melodies exquisitely played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, who has always excelled in French music from Berlioz through to the later, more impressionistic repertoire. Move over Debussy and a youthful Schoenberg.

I came across this set whilst looking for a recording of "Le cantique de Jean Racine" and found that it was worth buying an hour and a half's-worth of music even though my original idea was to find the best version of a piece lasting not six minutes. Given that my favourite "Requiem" is by the King's College Choir, it was appropriate that I also like their version of this canticle. The boomy, chapel acoustic is a bit of a shock after so much intimate music but it's well sung by an all-male choir whose diction makes the words are clear enough, even if they are not provided by Panorama.

Despite the prevalence of vocal music in the form of various songs from distinguished Fauré interpreter, baritone Gérard Souzay, there are also plenty of instrumental and orchestral lollipops such as the famous "Pavane", the "Dolly suite" for two pianos and the "Elégie" for cello, piano and orchestra and two lovely piano pieces from Pascal Rogé. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays the "Masques et bergamasques" in sprightly fashion to provide a lively counterbalance to the prevailingly sombre, reflective mood of most of the music here. As a survey of Fauré's art, this set could hardly be more generous or representative.

(Listings correction: the third Mélodie, "Soir", is Op.83 no.2 and the lyrics are by Albert Samain.)