Guild GHCD 2327, 55:40 (Distrib. Albany) ****:
The concert of 28 March 1954 enjoyed the Gallic sensibilities of Charles Munch (1891-1968) at the helm of Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony, and rare moments of orchestral delicacy resulted. Ben Grauer introduces the program. The utterly sensuous and Spanish, rhythmic character Munch achieves in Iberia demands any collector’s attention, if only for the swaying, boisterous frolic that explodes on The Morning of a Festival Day. The subtle timbres and plastic lines Munch draws from the NBC from the Menuet of Le Tombeau de Couperin more than fulfill the ensemble’s promise in music that Toscanini himself did not program; and for Munch connoisseurs, the Ravel and Roussel entries are unique additions to his catalogue. Munch takes the Rigaudon at a breakneck pace, yet the trumpet figurations suffer no distortion. Wonderful oboe and flute work throughout the suite, an homage bittersweet in its postwar patriotism and recollection of a bygone, gentler age.
Eight sections comprise the second of the suites for Roussel’s Bacchus et Ariane ballet. While I have always relied on the likes of Markevitch and Martinon to fulfill my demands for this sultry, dusky score, Munch certainly provides it every sympathy, from an airy upper register in strings and winds, to pulsating flourishes in piccolo, trumpets, tympani, and bass pizzicati. Between Roussel and Debussy, the tambourine part has had quite a workout! Ariane’s Dance and ensuing Bacchanale achieve the kind of exotic passion–triple tonguing from the trumpet–of which Roussel could command in his own modal syntax. The audience reception is wild and unbridled–and why not?
— Gary Lemco
