Debussy Vocal & Orchestral Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Claude Debussy
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 3/1988
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 423 103-1GH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (La) Damoiselle élue |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Brigitte Balleys, Mezzo soprano Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Chorus (amateur) London Symphony Orchestra Maria Ewing, Soprano |
| Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra |
| Images, Movement: Ibéria |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Claude Debussy
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 3/1988
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 423 103-4GH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (La) Damoiselle élue |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Brigitte Balleys, Mezzo soprano Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Chorus (amateur) London Symphony Orchestra Maria Ewing, Soprano |
| Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra |
| Images, Movement: Ibéria |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Claude Debussy
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 3/1988
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 49
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 423 103-2GH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (La) Damoiselle élue |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Brigitte Balleys, Mezzo soprano Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Chorus (amateur) London Symphony Orchestra Maria Ewing, Soprano |
| Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra |
| Images, Movement: Ibéria |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor London Symphony Orchestra |
Author: Edward Greenfield
The London Symphony Orchestra have rarely sounded so sensuously beautiful on record as in this Debussy collection, bringing together two favourite works in coupling with the exotic early cantata La damoiselle elue inspired by Rosetti's Blessed Damozel. That early work takes pride of place on the disc, and rightly so when it brings the most distinctive performance. The recording was made in All Saints, Tooting, and the church resonance greatly adds to the evocative beauty of the writing, not least in the singing of the chorus, set at a fair distance. The two solo voices too. Though nicely contrasted, the mezzo Narrator earthier, the soprano Damoiselle more rarefield and remote, add to the sensuousness of the piece. Both are beautifully caught, so that the touch of rawness on some of Brigitte Balleys's notes have an attractive freshness, and Maria Ewing has never sounded sweeter on record. It helps that the voices—unlike those in the last DG version of this work on LP from Daniel Barenboim (2531 263, 8/80—nla) with Barbara Hendricks in the title-role—are not too closely balanced.
Abbado's reading of the work is poised and spacious—much more so than Barenboim's for example—with expressive rubato always persuasive and with climaxes strongly built. The Prelude al'apres-midi d'un faune and Iberia on the other hand bring relatively urgent and impulsive performances, and there my obvious comparison has been with the earlier readings by Abbado's predecessor as Music Director of the LSO, Andre Previn. His Gramophone Award-winning EMI disc of 1979, a pioneering effort in digital sound, is still astonishingly vivid, and actually sets out the orchestra with more spatial realism that this latest DG issue. It is partly a question of the reverberant acoustic demanding some judicious placing of microphones, which, with inevitable homing-in, gives placings of sound that are less firmly fixed as for example the whooping horns at the very end of Iberia. None the less the sound is still very vivid and full, and many will prefer the faster, more urgent performances, which yet sound evocative and unrushed with rubato just as persuasive. It is good to have Peter Lloyd playing the flute solo in the Prelude just as ravishingly as before. Though it would have been better still to have like Previn—all three of the Images, not just Iberia, this makes a fine celebration of Abbado's long and fruitful period with the LSO.'
Abbado's reading of the work is poised and spacious—much more so than Barenboim's for example—with expressive rubato always persuasive and with climaxes strongly built. The Prelude a
Debussy Vocal & Orchestral Works
Debussy Vocal & Orchestral Works
Debussy Vocal & Orchestral Works
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