MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline

 

Claude DEBUSSY (1862–1918)
Pelléas et Mélisande (1892/1902) – Symphonie (arr. Marius Constant (1961)) [25:05]
Clair de lune (Suite Bergamasque) (1890/1895) (orch. André Caplet) [4:34]
Nocturnes (1893/1899) [25:26]
Berceuse héroïque (pour rendre hommage à S M le Roi Albert I de Belgique et à sa soldats) (1914) [4:55]
Trois Études (1915) (orch. Michael Jarrell (2002)) – 9 Pour les notes répétées, 10 Pour les Sonoritées opposes, 12 Pour les accords) [13:31]
MDR Radio Choir; Leipzig, Orchestre National de Lyon/Jun Märkl
rec. 15 – 20 July 2007 (Nocturnes 1 and 2); 15 – 19 January 2008 (Berceuse héroïque, Clair de lune, Études and Pelleas et Melisande); 11 – 12 February 2008 (Nocturnes 3), Auditorium de Lyons, France DDD
NAXOS 8.570993 [74:09] 

 

Experience Classicsonline


A friend of mine mentioned recently that there were precious few original orchestral works by Debussy. So many of them were either orchestrations of piano works or had had their orchestrations completed, or undertaken, by other hands. He’s right – there’s only the Nocturnes,
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, La Mer, Danse sacrée et danse profane and Images, and a couple of smaller pieces. On the other hand, there’s a list as long as your arm of orchestrations and arrangements by others, ranging from Caplet and Büsser to Colin Matthews, Niels Rosing Schouw, John Barbirolli, Hans Zender and Robin Holloway. It is to be hoped that this Debussy series – this is the second volume of the orchestral music – will embrace the various versions made by others. 

This disk makes a very good start on the arrangements with Marius Constant’s Symphony, based on music from Debussy’s only completed opera. Mainly using the instrumental portions of the score Constant has fashioned a large-scale piece, which is fascinating. It makes me sad that I cannot, and have never been able to, enjoy the stage work. There is real symphonic growth in this piece, and as the work progresses there’s tension and drama. It makes one wish that Debussy had written a Symphony of his own for the development in this work shows how his mind worked and how he could bring together the right material for such a project. It also proves just how symphonic Pelléas et Mélisande really is. This is a major addition to the small catalogue of orchestral works of Debussy and it receives a fine performance here, which will, I hope, win it some friends. Incidentally, in case you’re wondering why the name of Marius Constant is so familiar, it’s because he is the composer of the famous theme music to the TV series The Twilight Zone. 

The Nocturnes is one of Debussy’s first major orchestral achievements. The three movements are mysterious, fantastic and elusive. Nuages is a depiction of clouds, but it’s not cloudy music in any way, more a depiction of the sky as they pass over. Fêtes is a carnival day with a procession coming from afar – a dazzling, fantastic vision as the composer put it – and taking over the scene before being swallowed into it. The final movement, Sirènes is a picture of the sea with a wordless female chorus singing an alluring song but being gradually left behind, and not bringing us to grief on the rocks. There is stiff competition in this work, not least from Ansermet, Boulez, Haitink and Martinon and Monteux, but Märkl directs a very good performance, perhaps missing the last ounce of subtlety and not quite making the most of the procession in Fêtes but these are small matters. This is a very satisfying performance indeed. 

The other pieces require little comment. Berceuse héroïque is a rather un–Debussyian piece, a reaction to the war and dedicated to “His Majesty King Albert I of Belgium and his soldiers”. Caplet’s orchestration of Clair de lune is a delight and the three Études orchestrated by Michael Jarrell, a Swiss composer born in 1958. These work rather well for orchestra – which one might not have expected given that they are studies for the keyboard – but he misses the point of the climax in the final piece. 

Märkl’s first disk of Debussy’s orchestral music failed to really impress me, by the side of the competition, although I found his performance of Jeux to be very fine indeed. I have no reservations about this disk. It’s well worth having and the Pelléas et Mélisande Symphonie should be heard by all lovers of this endlessly fascinating composer.

Bob Briggs

see also Review by Kevin Sutton






 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.