Bolero Arletty

Ravel: Bolero - La valse - Rapsodie espagnole / Debussy: Images
Charles Munch / Boston Symphony Orchestra
SACD ISO (2.0/MCH): 2,70 GB | 24B/88,2kHz Stereo FLAC: 1,30 GB | Partial Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: RCA Red Seal "Living Stereo" # 82876-66374-2 | Country/Year: US 2005
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Early 20th Century

"…Recommended with enormous pleasure. " ~sa-cd.net

Pierre Monteux was 86 when the first of these recording sessions took place and would die in 1964, when he recorded the Bolero here–no doubt the oldest conductor to do so. You can detect a bit of slackening in the later performances, but the Ma Mere l'Oye ballet is also form 1964 and sounds lovely. Don't expect flash and virtuosity, although the LSO certainly plays well. Approach this CD as a memento of one of the century's premiere musicians.

The listener may see the phrase "piano Erard 1905" on the cover of this album of Ravel works and wonder whether the historical performance movement has really gone too far. And truly this is, at least from a modern standpoint, an unusual and even bizarre Ravel recording. It's not so much the Erard piano, which sounds as though it was made to play Fauré and Debussy, but is not so far from other concert grands. What's strange is the general interpretation by Flemish historical keyboardist Jos van Immerseel, known mostly for his performances of music from the eighteenth and perhaps the early nineteenth centuries.