Berlioz/Bizet/Delibes Opera excerpts
A major French conductor largely getting his own – and the composers’ – way
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Hector Berlioz, Maurice Ravel, (Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes, Georges Bizet
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Testament
Magazine Review Date: 11/2002
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 66
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: SBT1265
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(Le) carnaval romain |
Hector Berlioz, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor Hector Berlioz, Composer London Philharmonic Orchestra |
(La) Damnation de Faust, Movement: ~ |
Hector Berlioz, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor Hector Berlioz, Composer London Philharmonic Orchestra |
(La) Damnation de Faust, Movement: Menuet des Follets, 'Will-o'-the-wisp' |
Hector Berlioz, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor Hector Berlioz, Composer London Philharmonic Orchestra |
Carmen, Movement: Entr'acte, Act 2 (Les dragons d'Alcala) |
Georges Bizet, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French National Radio Orchestra Georges Bizet, Composer |
Carmen, Movement: Entr'acte, Act 3 (Intermezzo) |
Georges Bizet, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French National Radio Orchestra Georges Bizet, Composer |
Carmen, Movement: Entr'acte, Act 4 (Aragonaise) |
Georges Bizet, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French National Radio Orchestra Georges Bizet, Composer |
Lakmé, Movement: Prelude |
(Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes, Composer
(Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes, Composer Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French National Radio Orchestra |
Lakmé, Movement: Entr'acte |
(Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes, Composer
(Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes, Composer Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French National Radio Orchestra |
(Une) Barque sur l'océan |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French National Radio Orchestra Maurice Ravel, Composer |
Rapsodie espagnole |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French National Radio Orchestra Maurice Ravel, Composer |
Lakmé, Movement: ~ |
(Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes, Composer
(Clément Philibert) Léo Delibes, Composer Chorale Marcel Briclot Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French National Radio Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Maurice Ravel
Label: Testament
Magazine Review Date: 11/2002
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 77
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: SBT1264
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Daphnis et Chloé |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Maurice Ravel, Composer |
Ma Mère l'oye, 'Mother Goose' |
Maurice Ravel, Composer
French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Maurice Ravel, Composer |
Composer or Director: Gabriel Fauré
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Testament
Magazine Review Date: 11/2002
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 71
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: SBT1266
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Shylock |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Gabriel Fauré, Composer Henri Legay, Tenor |
Pelléas et Mélisande, Movement: Prélude |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Gabriel Fauré, Composer |
Pelléas et Mélisande, Movement: Fileuse |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Gabriel Fauré, Composer |
Pelléas et Mélisande, Movement: Sicilienne |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Gabriel Fauré, Composer |
Pelléas et Mélisande, Movement: La mort de Mélisande |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Gabriel Fauré, Composer |
Cantique de Jean Racine |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Gabriel Fauré, Composer |
Requiem |
Gabriel Fauré, Composer
Bernard Demigny, Bass Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht, Conductor Françoise Ogéas, Soprano French Radio and TV Orchestra French Radio Chorus Gabriel Fauré, Composer |
Author: rnichols
One does not have to read far in any account of Inghel’s character to see that he might naturally have sympathised to some extent with Maréchal Pétain. He paid for this with temporary banishment after the war, but otherwise the French Radio Orchestra he founded in 1934 learnt to know him over a period of 30 years until his death in 1965.
In saying he was reliable, I do not intend to give the impression that he was always right. Together with his many positive attributes went an occasional wrong-headedness that I find hard to square with the sensitivity he shows elsewhere. In the ‘Pie Jesu’, for instance, from the Fauré Requiem he sets the decidedly smart pace of crotchet=63 in place of the composer’s Adagio, crotchet=44, and then allows poor Francoise Ogéas absolutely no leeway, not even for that magical surge of sound which leads into the return of the opening phrase. Notwithstanding, she sings beautifully, and I just long for one of those machines that alters tempo but not pitch.
At the other extreme he takes ‘Le Jardin féerique’ in Ma mère l’oye at a funereal crotchet=36, giving it all the allure of a building site. He also explains something to me that I have never understood, namely why Ravel withdrew his orchestration of ‘Une barque sur l’océan’. Seduced by the versions of Boulez and others, I have always felt Ravel was being unduly finicky here. But perhaps he heard it in a performance along Inghel’s lines, where it comes over as no more than a bag of orchestral tricks, an orgy of figurations. This version also contains, it must be said, one painful cor anglais entry (4'02") which presumably there was not time to retake.
But, those cavils aside, what treasures lie here! The verve, the lightness of touch belong to a vanished age, I feel, as in the entractes from Lakmé (from Acts 2 and 3, incidentally, not 1 and 2 as advertised). Then there is the range of colour he brings to Daphnis and the hard, brutal sound he gives to the pirate’s music – held in reserve until this point. Relish too the lovely flute playing of Fernand Dufrène, cool but touching and exquisitely phrased, and the delightfully fuzzy French contra-bassoon doing its best to be a terrifying Beast in Ma mère l’oye.
If I had to choose a favourite work from these three discs, it would be Fauré’s incidental music to Shylock (The Merchant done over à la française). Every note here is integrated into a performance of overwhelming elegance and sensuality. And when you’ve listened to it, I imagine you, like me, will be asking yourself why this marvellous score is not in the repertoire of every major orchestra.
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