Search - Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Georges Prêtre :: The French Collection

The best Debussy recording ever.

John W Gregory | Los Angeles, CA | 12/21/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My first encounter with Debussy occurred 11 years ago when I heard the selections on this CD conducted by Eric Hammerstein (except Reverie) on an old, scratchy, 10 album--"best of classical music"--set. Since then, I have sampled hundreds of recordings of my Debussy favorites, and my collection abounds with variety, yet no recording I have ever heard is as haunting as this one."

A Schizoid Release

Jeffrey Lipscomb | Sacramento, CA United States | 06/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have never encountered a classical CD with the Jekyll & Hyde qualities of this one. Unless you fall into one or more of the following categories, this disc is probably not for you: 1) you've always been curious to hear how Cecil B. DeMille might have sounded if he had been a conductor instead of a film director, 2) you are an audiophile looking for demonstration quality recorded sound, or 3) you are hoping to find an orchestral CD that may provoke as much laughter as the Florence Foster Jenkins vocal recitals elicit from the opera crowd.



Are you still here? Well, I suppose #3 would hook me, too. The Jekyll half of this CD is Georges Pretre, in honest, fairly straightforward readings with the Royal Philharmonic of the 2nd Suite from Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe," and Debussy's Nocturnes "Nuages" and "Fetes." Pretre strikes me as a French counterpart to Russian conductor Yevgeny Svetlanov. Both were often a bit crude and impulsive , but each nevertheless achieved some sublime moments. For me, Pretre's best efforts were his Poulenc and Roussel recordings for EMI. Here he's not quite at that level: the Ravel is quite a ways short of, say, the classic 1955 Munch recording (RCA), while the Debussy does not rival what Inghelbrecht and others have given us. But most of the playing itself is pretty spectacular, especially in Fetes. It may give you some idea of Pretre's interpretation if I say that his Fetes reminded me strongly of Respighi's Pines of Rome.



The Hyde side here - seven piano pieces by Debussy in extremely well-played orchestral arrangements - is like looking into a fun house mirror. The performances are attributed to "Eric Hammerstein and the London Promenade Orchestra." The conductor's name is a pseudonym (more on that shortly), while the orchestra is probably the National Philharmonic or the Royal Philharmonic (both orchestras were signed to other labels, so Chesky couldn't use a real name). No arranger's name is given for the highly cinematic orchestrations, but I strongly suspect they are the work of "Hammerstein." Here are the seven pieces:



1. "Reverie" begins innocuously enough - a solo flute over strings - and then the strings surge and swell in a manner that would leave Stokowski aghast and probably bring a blush to Mantovanni's cheeks. This is fulsome romantic gushing similar in feel to what Elmer Bernstein composed and conducted for the more melodramatic moments in the film "From The Terrace."



2. "Clair de Lune" is truly High Camp here. It starts out like an imitation of Afternoon of a Faun, but then a solo piano comes in and the piece becomes a miniature concerto. More orchestra, and then .... the celestial choir! Their wordless singing left me feeling pretty speechless, too! Then in come the multiple harps with chorus, orchestra, and don't forget the solo flute! You simply HAVE to hear this one to believe it.



3. It wasn't until hearing this arrangement of "The Girl With The Flaxen Hair" that I realized film composer Russell Garcia had lifted Debussy's theme intact for use in the "farewell" moments of his score for the 1960 science fiction classic "The Time Machine." There, the flaxen-haired Eloi lass is Weena (played by Yvette Mimieux). Oddly, the time machine's inventor H. G. Wells (played by Rod Taylor, who saves Weena from the Morlocks) has a blond best friend back home named Angus, and Debussy's music is played for their parting, too! Angus was played by actor Alan Young, who was born ANGUS Young! He is best known to 1950's TV sitcom viewers as the suffering owner of the talking horse "Mister Ed." Again, the musical arrangement here is over-blown and highly cinematic.



4. "The Engulfed Cathedral" starts out as piano solo (no pianist's name is credited), then bells start to accompany the bass chords, and suddenly harp filigrees fly by, joined by strings and then - once again, the celestial chorus! De Mille would have loved this as a backdrop to one of Moses' miracles in "The Ten Commandments."



5. The "Cortege" (from the Petite Suite) starts off piano solo, then winds & strings join in, crescendoes build to a series of cymbal clashes, triangles, etc. - I think you get the idea. The string playing sounds like Percy Faith on steroids.



6. Haven't you ALWAYS wanted to hear "Golliwog's Cake Walk" as a composition by Scott Joplin? Well, here's your chance! But it's only momentary. The Grofe fans who adore "On The Trail" get their treat next - replete with xylophones - and then those who dream of hearing Gershwin's "American in Paris" get their fair share. There might even be a Theremin in here somewhere, but I was laughing too hard to notice.



7. "The Little Shepherd" plays his solo flute, then winds and strings come in gently. It's a very tasteful arrangement of a brief work, and it brings us out of the fun house and back into the real world.



This CD is one of those Chesky sonic spectaculars from the team of engineer Kenneth Wilkinson and the late producer Charles Gerhardt. Gerhardt, at Toscanini's suggestion, became a conductor himself, and his style was generally somewhere midway between Barbirolli & Stokowski. He recorded fabulous interpretations for RCA's Classic Film Score series (Korngold's "The Sea Hawk," Steiner's "Gone With The Wind," etc.). Gerhardt also recorded Howard Hanson's "Romantic" Symphony, and the performance was much admired by Hanson himself.



So the last rabbit out of the hat: Charles Gerhardt and conductor Eric Hammerstein were one and the same! Gerhardt also had a reputation as a superb pianist (he studied privately at Juilliard), and the piano playing here may well be his.



Highly recommended for sheer outrageous chutzpah!



Jeff Lipscomb"