Bizet

Arthur Fiedler's recording of Shchedrin's Carmen Ballet is excellent in every way. The composer's imaginative rescoring of several sections of Bizet's opera for strings and percussion is a superb reorchestration exploiting a full range of percussion timbre that reveals an incredible array of views of the score that continually delight the listener. The Ballet, composed as a vehicle for his celebrated wife- prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet, Maya Plisetskaya - is an extraordinary orchestration which invites the listener to explore new and very different colors with music originally scored for Bizet's classically constituted orchestra of the opera pit. While the disk also includes the Incidental Music to "Hamlet" by Shostakovich and Glazunov's Carnival Overture, it's the Shchedrin performance that makes the disk worth any price for the listener who values discovering new things in music well known in an earlier guise.

Bizet is more than Carmen. In his opera Les pêcheurs de perles you find melodies to die for and not only the vocal music is beautiful, but also the orchestral and ballet pieces too. The opera includes “Warhorse” romance in every tenor’s repertoire: “Je crois entendre encore”, the tenor-baritone duet “Au fond du temple saint”. The tenor “has the most beautiful romances, some of which are nothing less than exceptional, and able to ensure Bizet’s eternal fame.” (Corriere della sera)

Bizet is more than Carmen. In his opera Les pêcheurs de perles you find melodies to die for and not only the vocal music is beautiful, but also the orchestral and ballet pieces too. The opera includes “Warhorse” romance in every tenor’s repertoire: “Je crois entendre encore”, the tenor-baritone duet “Au fond du temple saint”. The tenor “has the most beautiful romances, some of which are nothing less than exceptional, and able to ensure Bizet’s eternal fame.”

Carmen, a tempestuous opera written by Georges Bizet, is set in the city of Seville, Spain. Carmen is sexy and capricious, and freely taunts the soldiers around her saying she will love or discard whom she chooses just as she pleases. But, after attacking another woman at the cigarette factory with a knife Carmen has to use her seductive skills on her guard, Don Jose, to escape going to prison. Passion between Don Jose and Carmen, and Escamillo, a celebrated toreador who is infatuated with her, leads to jealousy, violence and death. Rinat Shaham with her sublime singing dominates the bull-fighting arena as the provocative and alluring Carmen, while Dmytro Popov portrays Don Jose with a perfect mix of naivety and mad desire, his rich tenor rolling out across the bay.

Ms Yakar is not only a specialist in French melodies (and a native speaker of French), but is also well known as a baroque specialist. This combination of specialities often produces very fine approaches to interpretation - one sees it in the singing of Sandrine Piau, Veronique Gens, Patricia Petibon, etc. And in the singing of Rachel Yakar, the effect is marvellous - a wonderful sense of intimacy and that indefinable quality one can only call "charm". I doubt that this elusive quality can be taught - I have never yet heard a singer develop it from nothing……….Merveilleux, Mme Yakar! This is a thought-provoking and beautiful recording worth the possessing.

Ingrid Heyn @ Amazon.com

These disc were recorded in 1995 during Charles Dutoit's long spell as artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. During that time they made many outstanding recordings with a particular reputation for French and Russian music and a glorious sound recorded in Saint-Eustache church. Dutoit is an ideal conductor for Bizet's music, sufficiently romantic to bring out its drama without letting it become self-indulgent.

Bizet & Chabrier - Orchestral Works - Les Siècles & François-Xavier Roth (2008) {Mirare Official Digital Download MIR036}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (prestoclassical.co.uk) -> 310 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 152 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) ->7 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2008 Mirare | MIR 036
Classical / Romantic / Orchestral

The French conductor François-Xavier Roth was born in France in 1971 and studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. In October 2000 he won joint first prize at the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, following which he was appointed for two seasons assistant conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra. From 2000 to 2002 he was also assistant conductor with the Caen Orchestra. In 2003 François-Xavier Roth created the chamber orchestra Les Siècles (The Centuries), combining period and modern instruments, an orchestra which covers a vast repertoire from Baroque to contemporary music.