Piero Coppola gained early conducting experience in his native Italy, but after the First World War settled in Paris and became Musical Director of French HMV until 1934. During this period he produced and conducted many important recordings, a lot of the works chosen being new to the gramophone. Although he has always been recognized as a great pioneer, very few of his performances have been available since the end of the 78 era. At his best he was an excellent conductor, as we can tell in the first-ever recording of Saint-Saens's Third Symphony, which was one of the few occasions on record when Coppola was able to show his paces in a large-scale romantic work.
He directs a beautifully-judged, spirited account of the score. Particularly striking are the qualities of nobility and warmth which he finds m the slow movement, and the excitement of the finale, where tension is very skilfully built up step by step. He gets strong playing from an ensemble which was specially brought together for recording purposes. His performance of Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales was also a gramophone premiere: the reading is characteristically direct and communicative, but sensitive and poetic too. Honegger himself made the first recording of Pacific 231 with the Pasdeloup Orchestra on a late acoustic French HMV record which was no doubt supervised by Coppola, whose own vigorous, highly-charged account was the first electric recording.
Koch's otherwise very commendable disc has alas, a hole in its middle, for I cannot see why precious space has been wasted on Bolero when, for example, the first recording of Le tombeau de Couperin might have been included. Ravel himself supervised Coppola's Bolero and told him to adopt a slower tempo. His performance is thus similar to the composer's own, until the last side. When that was reached Ravel must have departed, for the last section is speeded up in a very vulgar fashion. The original recordings were not particularly good for their day, but transfers are effective.'