This is a splendid account of these four suites, two drawing on Bizet's incidental music to Daudet's play and the others taken from his last and most celebrated opera. They call for performances having qualities of subtlety and delicacy as well as an earthy vitality, and they receive them here in full measure. Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised although my expectations were already high given these stylish performers and Decca's recording team led by the producer Ray Minshull working in a location of proven excellence, the church of St Eustache in Montreal. The playing under Dutoit is so consistently satisfying that it hardly seems necessary to point to much detail, though with instrumentation that often spotlights individual players there are soloists deserving of commendation, such as the flautist Timothy Hutchins in the second L'arlesienne suite, who has an attractive liquid simplicity of line. (The solo flautist in the Carmen Intermezzo, Robert Langevin, is pretty good too.) The recording is exceptionally vivid and spatially rich yet natural-sounding, only in the final Farandole in L'arlesienne did I feel that the heavy percussion, including bass drum, were too resonant. The CD at 73 minutes is generous in quantity (as well as quality) of music, and the placing of the Carmen suites second is right chronologically and dramatically—though this is not to say that the music written for Daudet's stark drama set in Provence is light-weight; and played as they are here, the dazzling colour of both Bizet's scores never degenerates into mere prettiness, so that for example the famous Carmen Habanera has just the right blend of seductiveness and swagger.
Which, to be candid, Marriner's account of the same piece hasn't. His version of these works for Philips ( 412 464-2PH, 12/84) is a ten-year-old performance which, skilful and well recorded though it is, does not compete in panache, charm and sheer sound with the new issue from Canada. It has Carmen placed at the start, and begins the First Suite with ''Les toreadors'' and its famous tune rather than the intense Prelude (as with Dutoit and his Montreal orchestra) which better sets the dramatic tone. It does not include the Nocturne that Dutoit and Decca find room for, a substantial and eloquent piece with a fine violin solo, and the Intermezzo, though expressive, is surprisingly slow. As for Ozawa on EMI ( CDC7 47064-2, 9/85), he only offers a total of six Carmen items and in both sets of suites this well recorded issue disappoints as a performance, offering no special character or commitment; it is also 22 minutes shorter than the new Decca CD. Which leaves me reiterating my recommendation for this impressive Dutoit issue.'