If this coupling of Bartok and Ravel seems an odd one, the explanation is that both works might be counted as Ansermet repertory, and indirectly this record was promoted by the Swiss watch firm of Patek-Philippe as a celebration of the Ansermet centenary. Remembering Ansermet, the firm added its own special prize to the award given to last year's winner of the conducting price in the Concours International d'Execution Musicale in Geneva. As Patek-Philippe is also a regular sponsor of the LSO—it helped the orchestra with its recent visit to the Salzburg Festival—Grzegorz Nowak's recording debut was made here and not in Switzerland. It is a pity that his achievement is uneven between the two works. I played the Ravel first, and was disappointed at its cautiousness, its reluctance to depart from a steady metrical pulse. The LSO play brilliantly with much fine solo work, not least from the first flute, but the result is unmagical and too often lacking in tension. It is fascinating to compare Nowak's account of ''Danse guerrieres'' from the First Suite or ''Lever du jour'' from the Second with the performances by the same players under Andre Previn in their recording of the complete ballet (HMV ASD4099, 4/82). Previn is by no means a wilful Ravelian, but his sense of forward movement and control of the ebb-and-flow of tension underline what is missing with Nowak.
None the less with exceptionally vivid sound (also recorded in EMI's Abbey Road studio to judge by the photograph), the result is worthy enough. What it did not prepare me for was the outstanding account of the Bartok Dance Suite on the reverse. In every way this matches and even outshines the superb account with Sir Georg Solti recorded with the Chicago orchestra as a fill-up to his latest version of the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra on Decca. Plainly Nowak's Polish background has made him much more warmly sympathetic to folk-based Bartok than to Ravel. With the sound even more impressive than in the Ravel, biting and brilliant yet never harsh, the vitality of the piece is superbly caught with the LSO even crisper articulation than the Chicago players. In the third of the dances Nowak finds more wit than Solti and in the slow on following he is more affectionate without falsifying Bartokian style. Bands are placed between movements, even though the performance—rightly following the implication of the score—allows minimum pauses. It remains very short measure for a whole side. The Ravel First Suite is a rarity on record except as part of the complete ballet, which is a point in its favour.'