Search - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Jessica Rivera :: Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe; Poulenc: Gloria

Haitink, ChicagoSO: Poulenc Gloria, Ravel Comp Daphnis et Ch

Dan Fee | Berkeley, CA USA | 05/20/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While we wait for Ricardo Muti to take over in 2010, as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the in-house label CSO Resound continues to release interesting discs. This one is Primary Guest Conductor Bernard Haitink leading the band in two French works. We get Poulenc's Gloria, plus the complete score for Maurice Ravel's ballet, Daphnis et Chloe. The Chicago SO Chorus joins the band in both works. In the Poulenc, soprano Jessica Rivera is featured singer.



The disc begins with the Poulenc. This augurs well for a listener, since too many recordings do not pay all that much musical attention to the sequencing of the music being released. Starting with the Gloria is in nice keeping with what we would likely hear from a real, live concert.



In the Poulenc, everybody is in fine, fine form. The band and choral work are simply brilliant, and savvy, too. The playing and singing has that effective (but elusive) combination of clarity and slouch that the Poulenc needs to carry off its best impression. The Poulenc comes across - alive and intact - religious, witty, a catholic music which offers welcome to the monk and the guttersnipe (as the saying about Poulenc went). Too much clarity would distance us, leaving us uninvolved and unaffected. Too much slouch would turn Poulenc's abstracted pop and jazz references into lesser, overly-sentimentalized populisms. Whatever we should make of Poulenc's music, going all MTV is not the royal road to communicating his typically French, typically clever musical purpose. The chorus is doing a bang-up job under choral director Duain Wolfe. Following legendary choral director Margaret Hillis could not have been all that easy; though one could clearly expect being at the helm of one of the best USA symphony choruses. The symphony chorus members just sing their hearts out. The effect is precise and musically brilliant, all captured in a very good red book PCM sound from live concerts in November, 2007.



Soprano soloist Jessica Rivera? Not perfect, but she has a bigger voice than some of the catalog competition (Kathleen Battle, Sylvia McNair, Catherine Dubosc, Barbara Hendricks, Judith Blegen?). Given a heavier voice, my marker in recordings is Francoise Pollet with Dutoit. Ms. Rivera does not quite get all the way there; but she is close enough, high enough in her vocalism that quibbles about solo soprano differences do not really matter. What does matter is that Rivera sings accurately, in tune, and matches the elusive choral magic that has combined clarity with slouch. She resists the regional soloist temptation to just sing full tilt, all the time. She shows considerable restraint and subtlety and taste. Her phrasing has heft, and float, and repose - as needed.



After the last of the Gloria has gone, we move on. This disc wraps up with a complete reading of the single Ravel ballet, based on a certain French appropriation of the Greek myth of Daphnis and Chloe. The catalog competition for a keeper in this work is pretty fierce. Boulez in Berlin, Dutoit in Montreal, Munch in Boston (SACD), ... the list goes on for a good bit. You can pick just about any leading French music conductor, and get a worthwhile reading. My own keepers include Monteux, Martinon, Munch, Skrowaczewski in Minnesota (suites), and a sleeper reading by Manuel Rosenthal who later headed up the French opera conducting wing at New York's Met.



Haitink is competition for himself. He has already done this ballet with his home Amsterdam orchestra, and again during his tenure as guest conductor in Boston. To my ears, this third reading is preferable by just a bit. This latest Chicago disc has updated sound with a very clear and vibrant soundstage; plus the musical edge, clarity, and atmosphere that are prior readings somewhat play down. The other plus in this third reading is its compelling grip on the ballet, whole. Complete ballet recordings of this Ravel work often fail to catch fire, so that we end up with an engaged reading of the bit later redacted into the two orchestra suites, plus tame run-throughs of the ballet's furniture-moving music. This third Haitink reading in Chicago has no whiff of ho-hum furniture. It is not a matter of unusual tempos, since my ears can detect no excesses of tempo. Somehow the overall flow just keeps the whole ballet going along, integrated. More than usual. Perhaps the fine work of the chorus, and the general excellence of the Chicago players in live concert, galvanized Haitink to new levels of musical vision. In any case, this reading will probably stand as one of the more intact and compelling options. To my ears, we get a delicious serving of Charles Munch drama and joie de vivre, and the sensuous finesse of Dutoit or Martinon, and the Pierre Monteux respect for the ballet as one piece of grand music.



The symphony chorus acquits themselves beautifully, again. Again, their precision in the wordless choral singing advances the moments of high drama, rather than distancing us.



That all of this was captured in live concert - well, amazing. The only further wish I can imagine is that I wish we had a super audio surround sound version. This reading is so good that it seems only fair to have offered it up in the best available high resolution carrier. As red book disc, however, the engineering job here is as good as the PCM medium seems to allow.



Hint to Haitink in Chicago fans: the booklet mentions a pending Mahler Second from CSO Resound. For this Poulenc plus Ravel, five stars."

Much better than their Mahler! (seriously)

B. Guerrero | 05/15/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Both Haitink and the CSO get away from Mahler for two minutes, and suddenly everything comes to life. Go figure! Everything is pretty much up to tempo, and both works have plenty of atmosphere and charm. In fact, this Chicago "Daphnis" is far more sexy sounding than Haitink's incredibly boring and poker-faced one that he made in Boston for Philips. And while soprano Jessica Rivera doesn't quite float her upper notes the way that Kathleen Battle did so effertlessly for Ozawa (DG), she's still perfectly fine in the Poulenc. I have to say, I'm truly baffled. Clearly Haitink isn't ready for the old folks home yet. His recent Mahler, on the other hand, has truly left me wondering. Great sound quality too."