The Sorcerer's Apprentice French Symphonic Poems
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: (Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, César Franck, Paul (Abraham) Dukas, Camille Saint-Saëns, Sylvio Lazzari
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 12/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 67
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 555385-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (L')Apprenti sorcier, '(The) Sorcerer's Apprentice |
Paul (Abraham) Dukas, Composer
Michel Plasson, Conductor Paul (Abraham) Dukas, Composer Toulouse Capitole Orchestra |
| (Le) Chasseur maudit, '(The) Accursed Huntsman' |
César Franck, Composer
César Franck, Composer Michel Plasson, Conductor Toulouse Capitole Orchestra |
| Effet de nuit |
Sylvio Lazzari, Composer
Michel Plasson, Conductor Sylvio Lazzari, Composer Toulouse Capitole Orchestra |
| Lénore |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Michel Plasson, Conductor Toulouse Capitole Orchestra |
| Danse macabre |
Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer
Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer Michel Plasson, Conductor Toulouse Capitole Orchestra |
| Aux étoiles |
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer
(Marie Eugène) Henri Duparc, Composer Michel Plasson, Conductor Toulouse Capitole Orchestra |
Author: Ivan March
This is a well-planned and interesting anthology that is partly let down by a comparatively ordinary performance of the most familiar work here. I grew up on Stokowski’s dazzling 78rpm Philadelphia version of L’apprenti sorcier (having rejected the hard-driven Toscanini, who managed to get it on to two 78 sides!). Plasson is vigorous enough but rhythmically rather rigid and the piece’s sparkling sense of fun is missed. (Remember that wonderful denouement in Disney’s Fantasia when the magician whimsically sweeps Mickey away with his broom!) Similarly, Danse macabre has plenty of impulse and drama and a strong climax, but is taken very seriously and is without a touch of wit (although it has a luscious violin solo from Malcolm Stewart and the close is touching). Le chasseur maudit, however, is very successful, opening with an arresting horn call and with a properly demonic chase, while Plasson and his Toulouse orchestra sound really malignant in the lugubrious middle section when that sinister voice warns of the dangers: “Sacrilege, dit-elle, sois eternellement couru par l’enfer”. Plasson also creates a hauntingly Gothic atmosphere at the opening and close of Sylvio Lazzari’s masterly Effet de nuit, with its dismally sinuous evocation on the melancholy bass clarinet, of the twilit scaffold in the rain on the plain. The superbly scored climax of this remarkable piece is grippingly built as “three ghastly prisoners march in the downpour, surrounded by two hundred and twenty-five halberdiers”.
No less effective is Duparc’s Lenore, which is very Franckian. The opening, characterized by Tristanesque chromatic romanticism, gives way to the real melodrama of this typical nineteenth-century ballad, with its favourite device of a ghoulish horse-ride: here the heroine is carried off by her lover. He has returned from the Crusades, but is not what he seems, and she finally succumbs to his skeletonic embrace at midnight in an open grave. The closing Aux etoiles (“The astral light of night!”) is quite lovely and played with much understanding and affection. It makes a serene coda after a feast of histrionic malevolence. Excellent, suitably spacious recording with a wide, but not too wide, dynamic range.'
No less effective is Duparc’s Lenore, which is very Franckian. The opening, characterized by Tristanesque chromatic romanticism, gives way to the real melodrama of this typical nineteenth-century ballad, with its favourite device of a ghoulish horse-ride: here the heroine is carried off by her lover. He has returned from the Crusades, but is not what he seems, and she finally succumbs to his skeletonic embrace at midnight in an open grave. The closing Aux etoiles (“The astral light of night!”) is quite lovely and played with much understanding and affection. It makes a serene coda after a feast of histrionic malevolence. Excellent, suitably spacious recording with a wide, but not too wide, dynamic range.'
The Sorcerer's Apprentice French Symphonic Poems
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