Search - Ravel, Nagano, Lso :: Daphnis Et Chloe

Stealth stunner

Starry Vere | Silver Lake OH USA | 01/31/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For some reason this CD went relatively unnoticed upon its release. It is, to my ears, one of the better recordings of Daphnis, beautifully molded and paced, sensuous and sometimes time-suspending, yet with some hair-raisingly fast and almost violent dances. One proviso is that, like many digital recordings of the piece, the beginning is so ultra-quiet that you turn up the volume and then are eventually blasted out of the room. But what a blast!"

Proof that Ravel is not a One Trick Pony

B. Marold | Bethlehem, PA United States | 06/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"'Daphnis et Chloe' is a ballet by Maurice Ravel, commissioned by the Ballet Russe emprisario, Sergey Diaghilev, to be choreographed by the great Mikhail Fokine, and to star the even more famous Nijinsky. This was all done at about the same time Diaghilev was commissioning Igor Stravinsky's greatest ballets. While Stravinsky is probably one or two steps above Raval in the pantheon of great composers, this is a very nice work for listening. I was impressed by the number of recordings which have been made of just this work, which is a testament to its continued popularity. It is certainly more interesting to listen to than some of Stravinsky's later theatrical works such as 'Oedipus Rex' or 'The Rakes's Progress'.



I also notice that Kent Nagano seems to be something of a Ravel specialist, as I have him conducting several of Ravel's more popular pieces.



I will listen to this often, a lot more often than some of Stravinsky's lesser works, and while I have not heard any of the many other renditions, this interpretation seems quite expert to my ears."