It seemed to me that Charles Dutoit had recorded the Symphony No. 3 "Organ" by Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921) just a few years ago, yet he did it in 1982, going on thirty years back. Amazing. Nevertheless, this remastering in the Decca "Original" series didn't impress me any more on my most-recent listening than it did all those many years ago. That's not to say I disliked it; only that I like several other recordings better.Dutoit conducts in an urbane, cultured musical style, with everything neatly and effortlessly in place. He's not one to take many chances, and his manner meshes well with some kinds of music--Ravel, for instance, Debussy, and the French impressionists. In a big, loud, sometimes boisterous piece like the Organ Symphony, however, he seems too confined, too suave, too polished; everything sounds too well ordered, too perfect, if you will. And it doesn't help the situation that the Decca recording is ultrasmooth as well, with not quite enough deep organ bass to pull it off really successfully.
I found the accompanying Poulenc Organ Concerto a tad fresher, recorded a decade later in 1992, and with the Philharmonia Orchestra rather than with Dutoit's usual Montreal Symphony. The Poulenc performance has a little more life to it, and the recording is a bit closer and more dynamic.
Still, it's the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony that most people will probably want, and here one might do better with Louis Fremaux and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on a mid-priced EMI compact disc or Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony on an RCA SACD (or an expensive but worthwhile JVC XRCD). Both Fremaux and Munch are more exciting, more electrifying than Dutoit, and even though the quality of their recordings may not be as refined as Decca's, they are better in other ways, like deep bass and transparency.
Adapted from a review the author originally published in the $ensible Sound magazine.
JJP
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