joujoux (orch. Caplet); 3 Preludes (orch. Matthews) – Berlin
Philharmonic/ Sir Simon Rattle – EMI Classics 7243 5 58045 2
78:46 ****:
If Sir Simon Rattle can be said to have assumed the mantle of any of
his predecessors at the Berlin Philharmonic, I would venture from the
sonic splendors of this all-Debussy program, the late Sergiu
Celibidache. The incandescence of the playing, the opulent sonic
patina, all bespeak a sensuous realization of Debussy’s colorful works
totally in accord with the composer’s ethos. But rather than stretching
or distorting the musical lines with exaggerated tempos–as had
Celibidache–Rattle opts for a balance of lingering harmonic hues and
swirling, vibrant rhythms. If the palette of the Prelude seems to melt
into itself like one of Dali’s dreamscapes, La Mer pulses with a
kaleidoscopic evocation of crashing and meditative seascapes.
The arrangements of Debussy’s keyboard scores, the 1913 children’s
ballet La Boite a joujoux and three of his piano preludes, seem agile
and idiomatic enough, with Andre Caplet’s having captured the spirit of
Debussy’s daughter Chouchou’s old dolls in a spirit that extends what
Debussy had himself orchestrated up until his death in 1918. Colin
Matthews, whose liner notes also grace the disc, has endeavored to
orchestrate the entire set of Preludes for the Halle Orchestra. While
What the West Wind Saw and Dead Leaves strike me as rather contrived
responses to the keyboard originals, the Fireworks has something of
Stravinsky’s own approach to the subject. This disc contains delicious
colors for the audiophile and musical delights for the collector, with
enough new material to make another investment into La Mer well worth
the effort.
–Gary Lemco
