Bizet Farandole

«Light Classics», un jure pour beaucoup, mais c'est exactement ce qui vient à l'esprit de la musique de Georges Bizet (1838-75). Bizet se révèle être un important créateur de mélodies accrocheuses et un grand expert en instrumentation. Il a créé un son orchestral romantique tardif de légèreté française et de richesse des couleurs, ce qui montre la grande compétence de Bizet. L'interprétation de Chung avec l'Orchestre de la Bastille est impeccable et souligne cette légèreté musicale sans tomber dans la douce kitsch. Le CD offre ainsi 68 minutes de pur plaisir d'écoute, musique simple au plus haut niveau.

On February 26, 2008 The New York Philharmonic and Maestro Lorin Maazel performed a concert in Pyongyang, North Korea. In front of party and military officials a group of musicians managed to do what politics failed to achieve during the last sixty years – bring people from two very different worlds together.

Bizet composed 27 separate numbers for the L'Arlesienne Symphony and compiled the First Suite.
The Second Suite was put together after Bizet's death. Intermezzi by Mascagni, Verdi, Puccini, Wolf-Ferrari, Schmidt, Massenet.
The suite from Carmen, extracted after Bizet's death, contains orchestral settings of some of the opera's most famous passages

Bizet ~ L'Arlésienne & Carmen / Les Musiciens du Louvre - Grenoble, Minkowski
Naive | 25 mars 2008 | Classical | APE+CUE | 3% Recovery | 204 MB | Covers | 59'

There are many very good recordings of this music, but few truly great ones, and even fewer that make the music sound new (and old–more on that anon). This certainly is one of them, the finest disc of Carmen and L'Arlésienne suites since Markevitch with the Lamoureux Orchestra. Marc Minkowski offers the standard L'Arlésienne suites, plus a selection of the original incidental music shorn of the tiny bits of fragmentary fluff that make hearing the complete score such a frustrating experience. This permits the most complete appreciation of Bizet's genius thus far available on disc in this particular work. The Carmen music includes the prelude and standard entr'actes, with a reprise of the prelude to round off the proceedings. It's all so intelligent and enjoyable for home listening.
Better still, using period-ish instruments, Minkowski achieves a truly "French" sound, perhaps for the first time on disc since the 1950s or '60s. The compact ensemble sonority, pert winds, bright brass, and slightly wiry strings restore to the music so much of its innate vividness. Listen to the high-kicking brass in the Carmen Prelude, or the rhythmic "ping" that Minkowski brings to the Carillon in L'Arlésienne. Then there's the wonderfully touching but never sticky Adagietto and a closing Farandole that brings a genuine physical thrill to the program's conclusion (and you get to hear the music's first version, with voices, from Bizet's theatrical score). Perfectly natural sonics present the whole program with tactile immediacy, and the deluxe booklet is magnificent. You're going to love this. [5/12/2008]–David Hurwitz

In 1872, Bizet composed the incidental music for Daudet's theatre play L'Arlésienne. Following the huge success of this music, he composed a suite for orchestra based on the best pieces included in the original incidental music. In 1879, four years after Bizet's death, his friend Guiraud arranged a new orchestral suite, mainly based on Bizet's music, but also adding new quotes from the incidental music. In 2007 Marc Minkowski selected the best pieces from the original incidental music and conceived his own fascinating suite. The program is completed with the Prelude and three Entr'actes' from Carmen.

Known for one of the world's most popular operas, Carmen, Georges Bizet deserves attention as well for other works of remarkable melodic charm. Many of his works received cool receptions upon their premieres but are now considered central to the repertory of classical music.

A collection of Bizet's piano music is a bit more desirable as a purchase than instrumental music by other composers known primarily for opera; Bizet was a fine pianist and made money through his keyboard skills while he was struggling as an opera composer. He wasn't happy about it, however, and his complete compositions as a group reveal his ambivalent attitude.