Orchestral Works Vol 1 (Incls 'La Foraªt enchantae')

"A terrific disc of superb music, excellently played and in very fine sound."
(MusicWeb May 2008)

"What a promising start to this cycle. Apart from bringing these neglected scores to new audiences this recording also confirms Gamba as a conductor to watch. The orchestral playing is exemplary, the engineering spectacular...A sonic and musical treat. Not to be missed."
(MusicWeb Recording of the Month June 2008)

D'Indy was a contemporary of Debussy and Ravel, and a pupil of César Franck. Fauré described him as 'The Samson of Music' for his multifarious and generous-minded work as a composer, conductor, educator and propagandist who greatly strengthened French musical culture.

Today the music of d'Indy is sadly neglected, which is why Chandos and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra have decided to embark upon a series devoted to his orchestral works with conductor Rumon Gamba. With a style essentially eclectic and strongly influenced above all by Beethoven and Wagner, d'Indy particularly excelled in orchestral composition. He drew particular inspiration from his native region in southern France, and formed a body of post-romantic works richly orchestrated, often inflected with folk-like melodies and employing Franck's well-known 'cyclic method'.

The series begins with a programme of in part rarely performed works, including the outstanding Jour d'été à la montagne, Op. 61, a work of d'Indy's full maturity, composed in 1905. This cyclic three-part evocation of a day in the Ardèche mountains is full of impressionistic details and orchestral nature painting, partly influenced by Debussy but essentially classical in tonal structures. It is complemented by the early La Forêt enchantée, Op. 8 and largely contemporaneous Souvenirs, Op. 62, which d'Indy composed as a memorial to his late wife.

This is the first foray by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra for Chandos into the realm of French repertoire after recordings of the music of Malcolm Williamson. On the most recent Williamson release, American Record Guide commented, 'Rumon Gamba's direction of the Iceland Symphony is superb, as is the shape and conviction of all these interpretations. The sound is vibrant and clear'.