Complete orchestral works (Incls Daphnis et Chloa, Alborada del Gracioso & Pictures at an Exhibition [Mussorgsky orch. Ravel]) (Rec 1987-88)

"This set is licensed from the Japanese company Denon who made the recordings in Paris within the first half decade of the CD medium.

Sparkle and élan are in regrettably short supply in this set although explosions of sound, when they appear, are shatteringly full. You can hear both the power and the sleepiness this in Boléro and Daphnis. While there is a winsome cameo charm to the Menuet Antique it is a mite lethargic.

In La Valse, very successfully done, the flutter-tongued flute volplaning registers strongly pointing up parallels in equally deserving marine-scape Le Tombeau de Chateaubriand by the highly-gifted Louis Aubert. La Valse's sauntering pace, breeze-ruffled gauzes and warm shimmer suggest a waltz that could be danced; it is at that pace. Other gestures remind me of the pot plants and chintz of Barber's Souvenirs. Memorable are the trumpets cutting aggressively through the blurred galloping pace of last few minutes of the piece.

The recordings were made by Yoshiharu Kawaguchi who clearly espoused the then new digital medium for its ability to portray the merest breath through to stunning ear-assaulting climaxes. Boléro is the classic example. The principle is a good one but here it is just too much. Strangely in the well sustained mystery of Alborada the engineers pull back at the first blast leaching away its impact. There are some extremely nice touches in this recording: listen to the atmosphere conjured at 2.46 tr.6.

In Rapsodie Espagnole Inbal and the orchestra are extremely imaginative. Listen at 3.43 to that violinistic sliding, slipping and turning (also at 4.10 in tr.5 CD2)

Inbal's approach rather suits the Ma mère l'Oie so if you can imagine and relish this piece at a Delian languid tempo with summer oozing through the veins then look no further. Some perhaps many will find this all rather torpid but Inbal does seem really engaged by the piece and its delicacy is not lost on him as you can hear in Laideronnette (tr.6 CD3). Perhaps predictably the 'slow burn' of the Apothéose works extremely well in all its melancholic triumph."
(MusicWeb Oct 2003)