Until Daniel Barenboim's successful Chicago/Chartres recording of the mid-1970s (DG (CD) 415 847-2GGA, 4/87), the most striking American accounts of Saint-Saens's Organ Symphony were the 'vintage' tapings by the likes of Toscanini and Munch. Now Paul Paray's once celebrated 1957 Detroit recording has returned to the catalogue in a characteristically careful transfer which preserves the distinctive qualities of the original mastertape. Admirers of the Mercury series will know what to expect—a forward sound of surprising range and impact despite objectively limited body and minimal reverberation. Nor does Paray himself disappoint. His is a forceful interpretation which places more stress on clarity of articulation than sentimental ardour. Inevitably, some will consider the results brutally fierce. Certainly the straight-down-the-line approach works better in the scherzo than in the slow movement which is rather cool and aloof despite the participation of Paray's old friend, the organ composer Marcel Dupre. Every chordal shift from him is clearly audible which you may find unnerving—though not as unnerving as the strings' false entry 5'09'' into the finale. This should have been remade.
By coupling the Symphony with Paray's own Mass of 1931 (and including his closing speech of thanks to the performers), the record company seems to be courting the die-hard Mercury fan. Although Paray was permitted to inaugurate Detroit's Ford Auditorium with this selfsame work in 1956, its Faureish idiom struck me as astonishingly backward for a conductor of such fiery temperament. Even if the concluding Agnus Dei has an elegant, faded pastorale quality about it, the competent, four-square academicism of the rest would propel me towards Munch's contemporaneous account of the Saint-Saens, a shade warmer in feeling and more congenially coupled on RCA Gold Seal ((CD) GD60817). I should mention that Mercury's packaging is excellent: it is their policy to use the original LP notes and covers whenever possible, and full technical information is provided.'