There is much to enjoy in Paavo Järvi's
well-proportioned Ravel performances. The Daphnis et Chloë
suite is so much more effective when the first, easily expansive
climax of Daybreak doesn't overshadow the bigger one several pages
later, and when that one in turn doesn't displace the Danse génèrale
as the emotional peak. Separating those movements is a mysterious
Pantomime, no slower than most, but with the precisely defined
pizzicato chords producing a distinctive spaciousness. La Valse,
for all its color and pulsating life, emerges as a broad, purposeful
arc of sound, graceful and pointed, yet eschewing moment-to-moment
thrills, save for a stiff, self-conscious agogic at 5:51. The
conductor also has a good feel for the ebb and flow of the orchestral
sonority, eliciting impassioned yet impeccably controlled surges
of sound from the Cincinnati strings in both Daphnis and the Pavane.
Unfortunately, Järvi's unfussy, no-nonsense
rhythmic address doesn't incorporate the needed tempering flexibility.
He projects the music's rhythmic pulse rather rigidly: the Laideronette
episode of Mother Goose, for example, sounds rushed, owing to
the lack of breathing space in the phrasing. The impressively
crisp, quiet start to Boléro immediately feels a bit relentless,
an impression amplified when the trumpet at 4:21 lags a bit on
the staccatos, and when, shortly thereafter, both sax and clarinet
sound hard pressed to fit in their jazzy slides, disturbing the
rhythmic equilibrium. (Nor does it help that the tempo lurches
ahead at 10:25 - a different take, perhaps?)
And the disc seems to catch the Cincinnati orchestra
in transition: they're on their way to a more characterful sound
than they had under Jesus López-Cobos, but the kinks aren't
all worked out. The strings, as indicated, can surge attractively,
but the ensemble tone in the Jardin féerique of Mother
Goose is grainy. Thomas Sherwood's horn solo in the Pavane's high
tessitura is secure and focused, but lacks sensuous velvet; in
that piece, the solo woodwinds sound poignant, but elsewhere they're
less good, save for the consistently luminous solo clarinet. The
Mother Goose opening should be magically delicate, but the unsubtle
flute reduces it to the merely tender; the English horn introducing
the Daphnis pantomime is wooden. La Valse, good as it is, brings
up passing balance questions: the woodwind busywork surrounding
the full-bodied duetting bassoons after 1:01 threatens to cover
them; the levels of the melodic instruments at 2:24 ff. aren't
carefully enough matched.
The translucent sound, at least, is first-class,
with a flattering touch of ambience around solo winds. As expected,
the low-range clarity makes unusual sense of the bass pulses opening
La Valse, and the bass clarinet at 1:01 registers with exceptional
depth. But you can still rest content with Dutoit's complete Daphnis
(most recently available as Decca Legends 458605) while Monteux's
Philips program (variously available on Philips 464733 and 442542)
takes the palm in the shorter pieces.
Stephen Francis Vasta
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi Recorded in Music Hall,
Cincinnati, Ohio, 9-10 February and 21 September, 2003. 
