This nicely-planned collection makes a fascinating study of Ravel as orchestrator. No doubt with an eye to the popular market the Bolero comes first on the LP—as it did, title and all, in Solti's Bolero/Rite of Spring compilation in Decca's Ovation CD series (CD 417 704-2DM—to be reviewed later)—but the composer himself regarded that as more an orchestration than a genuinely creative job, and the other three items, bring together for the first time the three direct orchestrations he did six years earlier in 1922, not just the popular Mussorgsky realization but the two rare Debussy settings, which for many collectors will be the gems of this brilliant record.
Certainly they were the items I enjoyed most, particularly the dazzling Danse, which is in effect an orchestration of Debussy's Tarantelle styrienne, an early piece of 1890, which with its opening theme on the horn enhances the original with gorgeous irridescent colours. The ''Sarabande'' from the suite, Pour le piano, is far more questionable as an improvement, for there with mature Debussy the orchestration, for all Chailly's observance of the marking avec une elegance grave et lente, brings some feeling of heaviness before the end. It is partly a question of rubato, which with a solo pianist can be so much subtler and more seductive, and that points to the distinctive interpretative quality which marks all of Chailly's performances here, both for good and ill.
To an unusual degree Chailly takes a very metrical view of both Bolero and of the Pictures. In Bolero that brings at the start a light, classical crispness at a relatively fast speed, and the refinement is enhanced by the attractive, atmospheric distancing of the solo wind players. For comparison I chose Dutoit's Montreal version on Decca, where at a fractionally slower speed the approach is more warmly expressive with more of a dance implied and the wind solos fairly close. As Chailly's performance progresses, so his metrical view makes the piece seem ever more relentless, which has much to be said for it, except that it is not an experience I for one would invite very often, particularly when the relentlessness is intensified by the balancing of the percussion closer than the rest. By the end the percussion seem to have taken over, with even the brass sound filtered through them.
For all that I must emphasize this is one of Decca's ripely brilliant Concertgebouw recordings, very full and powerful, and that comes out strikingly in the Mussorgsky, which brings an amazing contrast with the last Concertgebouw recording of the piece, which Sir Colin Davis made for Philips, sounding disappointingly dull even on CD. Chailly's preference for a metrical approach makes the opening ''PRomenade'', and most of the others too, sound too square and plodding to my ear, and it culminates in an account of ''The Great Gate of Kiev'' with its closely related theme which is nothing less than ponderous, lasting well over six minutes. Relentless is again the word to describe it, and with such spectacular sound no doubt it will delight many, but I would myself far prefer both a faster speed and a more persuasive style, such as you find in the finest rival versions. I chose for comparison Abbado's DG recording with the LSO as being more metrical than most, only to find it—with a ravishing saxophone solo in ''The old castle'' by Jack Brymer—far more yielding and volatile than this, while still cutting home with bite and brilliance. Take the muted trumpet solo in ''Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle'', which with Chailly sounds very heavy in its stuttering next to Abbado's, not at all giving the required impression of a cowering figure.
On the other hand, the light, brilliant numbers are delightfully, often relaxedly, done, as for example ''Tuileries'', the ''Unhatched Chickens'' or ''The Market at Limoges'', while the relentlessness of Baba-Yaga, the ''Hut on fowl's legs'', is only too apt. It was a bold move of the new Music Director of the Concertgebouw to choose here a programme of showpieces to defy the traditional view of the orchestra, and it promises well for the future, but I certainly hope—as these last-mentioned numbers show he can—that he will modify his heavy-handedness.'