Denis Kozhukhin / Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg / Gustavo Gimeno FRANCK Symphony in D minor - Symphonic Variations

SYMPHONY IN D MINOR - SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS

Gustavo Gimeno / Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg DEBUSSY

Released in the year of Claude Debussy’s death centenary, this album demonstrates the exceptional harmonic and colouristic richness of his music. Centrepiece of the album is La Mer (1903-1905), a musical realization of the composer’s “sincere devotion to the sea” that revolutionized orchestral composition in the early twentieth-century. Ibéria takes the listener on a trip to Spain, whereas the Six Épigraphes antiques (1914), here performed in the orchestration of Rudolf Escher, evoke ancient Greece and Egypt. The biggest novelty on this album is Colin Matthews’ new, lush orchestration of Images. Book 1 (1901-1905), one of Debussy’s most-cherished piano works.

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg / Gustavo Gimeno STRAVINSKY

This double album offers a testimony to Stravinsky’s overwhelming musical heritage, covering all the phases of his creative life. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) is twentieth-century music! More than any other composer, he continued to develop his compositional style throughout his seven-decade-spanning career, innovating and adopting all the most important musical trends of his century. Historically, the musical journey starts with one of the first recordings of the recently rediscovered Funeral Song (1909), composed as a tribute to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. The next phase in his development is represented with the raw but tremendously refined Rite of Spring (1913), Stravinsky’s most famous work that created a scandal at its Paris world premiere, and immediately turned him into a star. His Neoclassical style is showcased by Jeu de cartes (1937) and the Concerto in D (1947), whereas Agon (1957) presents Stravinsky’s original take on Schoenberg’s serialism.

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg / Emmanuel Krivine / Karine Deshayes RAVEL Boléro - La Valse - Shéhérazade...

There is a lot to be said for French music performed by the French! An obvious point, but one belied in the history of recording by the traditionally iffy condition of French orchestras and the expatriate nature of great French conductors. In recent years, though, with cultural cross-fertilization a mere Internet click away, Francophone orchestras have begun to stand tall for the sheer excellence of their playing and set convincingly before listeners the special blend of sensuality and Cartesian lucidity that in so many ways makes France French. Gallic orchestras, one might say, are recapturing their musical patrimony through excellence. Indeed, the sort of virtuosity and precision to be found on Radio France these days would make George Szell and his Clevelanders proud. And now there is the French-speaking Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, under Emmanuel Krivine: beautifully disciplined and all of a piece.  

The special authenticity of orchestras performing music from their own culture is to be found in the little inner details of accent and articulation. Krivine and his musicians appear fascinated with each wriggle in Ravel’s world. Coloristic figurations other orchestras would play on automatic pilot suddenly mean something here. Every woodwind appears to have its own special accent and personality. Even in the snare drum, flurries of atmospheric notes acquire more than a background purpose. and flickers of light illuminate more than just rotating shards in the kaleidoscope. Krivine’s approach emphasizes a sort of Toscaninian precision, or at least I think so. Despite pleasant words written about the Luxembourg Philharmonie, the auditorium as recorded here sounds nearly as crackly as NBC’s notorious Studio 8H—beautifully balanced—but dry as a radiator. The sound itself is good, with an amazingly solid bass line, but the acoustic picture is so flat as to destroy any real sensuality being sought. But taken on its own terms, this analytical close-up is quite fascinating.  

La Valse and especially Une Barque sur l’océan have a lot more going on within than is normally audible, and Krivine’s precision pays real dividends. I thought more of both pieces after hearing this performance. Shéhérazade suffers a bit, though, from the sheer lack of voluptuous appeal. Karine Deshayes sings beautifully, but I’d judge her to be one of the less-voluptuous mezzos around. Her performance does nothing to dislodge Janet Baker, who not only managed the French accent in her classic recording, but also contributed that special timbre of voice that identified her immediately, no matter which note was being sung. And someone looking for a real wallow should turn to Renée Fleming, still in fresh and lush timbre, whose sensuality, flirtatiousness, and feeling for her own charisma play beautifully into Ravel’s hands. (Steven Kruger)

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg / Emmanuel Krivine VINCENT D'INDY Poème des rivages - Istar - Diptyque méditerranéen

Vincent d’Indy is another late-19th/early-20th-century composer who is all but forgotten. A Franck and Wagner disciple, he reacted obstinately against “modern” contemporaries, even Ravel, although he admired the Debussy of L’après-midi and the Nocturnes.

The widowed D’Indy fell ardently in love, which was reciprocated, with a student 36 years his junior and the straitlaced Roman Catholic musician suddenly acknowledged the underlying sensuality of his nature. He was already working on the Poème des rivages but the music’s pantheistic feeling blossomed when he and his young bride went to live at Agay on the Mediterranean. The rich orchestral colours of these four seascapes develop an expressive radiance in his luminous scoring. It is not another La mer, for the third-movment Scherzo wittily evokes a country train journey. But the final scene, “Le mystère de l’océan”, depicts the sea’s unpredictability and violence. The Diptyque méditerranéen followed, a mellow view of two landscapes seen from his home. But the impressionism is less potent than in the sea evocations. 

Istar tells of the Assyrian godess who (like Orpheus and Eurydice in reverse) seeks to retrieve her lover from the realm of the dead. She must pass through six doors, at each removing a garment, until, naked, she reaches her destination. The work is a set of variations using a simple three-note motif as a basis and Krivine makes the most of its sensuous feeling. All three performances are of a high order: the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra are at home in these scores and their conductor finds moments of genuine rapture. (Ivan March / Gramophone)