Also, Jeux d’enfants;
Variations chromatiques. Martin West, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Reference
Recordings RR-131.
The folks at Reference Recordings don't issue a whole lot
of discs in any given year, sometimes only one or two, but they are always so
good, musically and sonically, it makes every new release a special occasion.
Thus, it is a delight to welcome this latest RR entry into the catalogue, the
music of French composer Georges Bizet (1838-1875), performed by Martin West
and the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.
The first and most important item on the program is the
one that starts us off, the Symphony in C,
which Bizet composed as a student exercise at the age of seventeen. It's a
remarkable work for any age, but doubly so given the composer's youth. And it's
held up remarkably well, too, considering that Bizet thought so little of it
that he filed it away and forgot it. Undiscovered in the Paris Conservatoire
archives for some eighty years, it finally got its première in 1935. In terms
of recordings of it, Sir Thomas Beecham probably set the benchmark with his
1959 EMI account, a performance I had in mind when listening to this new one
from Maestro West.
I worried unnecessarily that West might not provide the
same charm, the same light, winsome delight that Beecham had. I shouldn't have
worried. West, after all, has been conducting the San Francisco Ballet
Orchestra since 2005 and before that was the conductor of the English National
Ballet and the Cambridge Philharmonic. He brings the light, delicate touch of
the ballet conductor with him, always exercising a spring in his step, a lilt
to the beat, a bounce to the melody. And what enchanting melodies they are; it
seems that Bizet from his earliest attempts at musical composition was able to
offer a seemingly never-ending flow of brilliant ideas. His themes and West's
direction give us a joyous, spontaneous, sometimes melancholy, always sweetly
flowing and pleasurable rendition of the Symphony
in C.
Following the Symphony,
we hear Jeux d'enfants (Children's Games), which Bizet
originally wrote in 1872 as a four-hands piano suite of twelve numbers. He
later orchestrated five of them, the others subsequently orchestrated for the
ballet version that debuted in 1932. That's what we get here, the first
recording of all twelve items, including those orchestrated by Hershey Kay and
Roy Douglas. (Previous recordings included only the Petite Suite, the five items Bizet himself orchestrated.)
Again, West and his players supply the kind of lithe,
animated interpretation we found in the Symphony.
The different sections of the score alternate between graceful, athletic
numbers and slow, lyrical ones, nicely caught by the conductor and his forces.
This is ballet interpretation of the first order, light and airy, colorful and
impassioned.
The final selection on the disc is Variations chromatiques, which Bizet wrote for piano in 1868. It
remained forgotten until 1933 when pianist, composer, and conductor Felix
Weingartner orchestrated it. Quite unlike the youthful, energetic,
high-spirited Symphony and Jeux, the Variations are dark and somewhat forbidding. Nevertheless, West
infuses them with a dancer's agility and a suitably atmospheric mood.
The Reference Recordings team of producers Victor and
Marina Ledin, executive producer Marcia Martin, and recording engineer Keith
Johnson recorded the music in 24-bit HDCD at Skywalker Sound, Marin County,
California in April 2012. Skywalker has become a well-known recording venue,
particularly for film music with the likes of the London Symphony Orchestra in
movies by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. How well the main sound studio
suits an orchestra for audiophile purposes, however, was a question that
interested me. Certainly, the studio seemed perfect for the Philharmonia
Baroque in their Four Seasons
recording, but that was a very small ensemble. Would a full orchestra sound as
good done at Skywalker when the engineers weren’t using the venue to make a
flat, forward-sounding film track meant to impress audiences when played back
in a huge movie theater? The answer is yes. Reference Recordings did another
fine job. Indeed, it’s among their more-transparent sounding discs, while retaining
their patented dynamic range, sonic impact, ambience, and air.
As with all of their products, RR's sonics are big and
bold, with an impressive power and authority. Yet the sound accomplishes this
feat without being muddy, cloudy, or overly resonant. The midrange transparency
remains intact while the orchestra blooms fully in all directions. We get a
quick, strong transient response; a wide frequency range; a good sense of
orchestral depth and room ambience; and a strong, often visceral force behind
the notes. It makes for a remarkably realistic presentation, something we have
come to know and love from Reference Recordings.
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
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