Symphonic Dances: Copland, Ravel, Stravinsky
Park Avenue Chamber Symphony/David Bernard
Recursive Classics 2061415
Total Time:  64:28
Recording:   (*)**/****
Performance: ****/****

If you are in New York City and have had the opportunity to hear the Park Avenue Symphony, you already know that this particular release is going to be an exciting exploration of three very popular 20^th-Century works.  Conductor David Bernard has received many accolades for his recordings with the ensemble willing to tackle mainstream repertoire that has been the recorded realm of far more well-known orchestras.  For this recording, the orchestra is using a newly-edited version of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919) that Bernard had a hand in editing.  The orchestra and label released an earlier album that had the extended Copland ballet and a different version of the Firebird Suite back in 2016.  Of course, audiophiles will have their favorite performances of all these pieces so this album becomes an important way more for the orchestra to have product for sale at their concerts, but it really also allows for a wider appreciation of their performances.  To that end, this recording will certainly be treasured by those who support the rise of such orchestras in America.

Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite opens up the album.  Bernard’s performance manages to keep the music flowing well here.  The recording sometimes creates a more ambience than one might want though.  This works against some of the crystal clear delineations of Copland’s lines.  The orchestra though moves through this work with some excellent solo playing, especially in the winds and brass.  Strings cut through this texture warming it as needed in Copland’s orchestration though one wishes it was a bit larger.  That said, with just a few places where the attacks might be more precise, one gets a sense more of what a live performance might entail.  It may not be the “best” of the versions of this available, but it has a tremendous amount of joy and energy that captures the spirit of the work.

The second suite from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe is among one of his more popular concert pieces.  One wants a bit more string sound in the opening “Lever du jour” to help create the sheen of sound here, but Bernard still manages to pull from the ensemble a sense of the blurred edges while primary thematic statements waft out of the texture.  All the beauty one comes to expect from the piece is certainly there.  The flute solos are certainly among the best captured for this work.  Perhaps on another level, we have here a closer sense of the chamber ballet orchestra that creates a different intimacy within Ravel’s textures that can get lost when it is performed as a big orchestral showpiece.  That makes this a more attractive performance which is capped by a thrilling “Danse generale”.

Another attractive addition will be the new edition of the Firebird Suite (1919).  Here the delicate colors and rhythmic precision are equally important and handled well by the orchestra.  One wonders if the decision to record this was intended to improve upon their earlier exploration of the piece as well as wanting to explore the smaller details of the new edition.  Regardless, the ensemble seems to really own this work much more than the other two no doubt aided by Bernard’s quite intimate knowledge of the score.  This makes for a thrilling conclusion to this release.

While one can find a few minor things along the way in the performances, the real issue for some will be the sound quality which can sometimes seem “thuddy” and other times has an odder balance that pops out.  The Stravinsky seems to be somewhat better served here sonically though sometimes the levels seem to fluctuate at times.  That said, it is perhaps closer to what one might experience in the concert hall and from a live performance.  Here, the Park Avenue Orchestra is on some of its finest ground yet and this release will likely be a treasure for its fans.

D’Indy: Medee, Karadee Suite, Saugefleurie
Malmo Symphony Orchestra/Darrell Ang
Naxos 8.573858
Total Time:  53:15
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Chandos has been serving the music of Vincent D’Indy (1851-1931) for several years now with Rumon Gamba.  For this Naxos release, conductor Darrell Ang has chosen three relatively forgotten orchestral pieces by this transitional French composer.  Ang has been surveying some of the periphery of French repertoire for the label so far, often drawing fine performances and was mentored by Lorin Maazel and Esa-Pekka Salonen.  Here he leads the Malmo Symphony in this unusual repertoire.

D’Indy is mostly remembered for a single work, the Symphony on a French Mountain Air, Op. 25 (1886).  His music was quite influenced by Wagner (he was present when the Ring was first performed at Bayreuth).  Franck was his teacher thus essentially cementing this musical connection to Wagnerian harmony and thicker orchestral writing.  And yet, D’Indy, composing at that fertile Belle Epoque where so many different musical aesthetics were in the air, managed to carve out a style that finds itself hard to pin down between the two centuries, essentially expanding the grand romantic French tradition.  As a teacher at the Schola Cantorum, his influence would be more widely felt through an eclectic group of composers that included Roussel, Satie, and even Cole Porter!

One trend often overlooked in this period is the way composers were exploring ancient musics, especially the church music traditions of the Renaissance and Middle Ages.  The impact is often lost on listeners because when actual Gregorian Chants or modes are not discernible, the composers may explore meters that are closer to earlier music.  (Saint-Saens does this in his Organ Symphony for example.)  Gregorian Chant is an inspiration and basis for the first two works on this release.  Medee (1898) is the latest piece of the album.  It was composed originally as incidental music to a production of this classic Greek tragedy updated by the dramatist Catulle Mendes (1841-1909).  Afterwards, D’Indy chose to create a five-movement orchestral suite.  The “Prelude” is an example of motivic transformation where a four-note idea becomes the basis of the music that follows.  The chromatic lines, and rich harmony, take their models from Wagner very well here.  The style also approaches Mahlerian proportions at times in this quite dramatic opening.  “Pantomime” is in a more familiar D’Indy approach in its use of folk tunes as a unifying factor, the second which is a rather delightfully-orchestrated tune closer to British folk tune style.  In “L’Attente de Medee”, D’Indy borrows from the Impressionist orchestral playbook with his solo flute line and glossy string writing.  The final two movements bring us back to late-19^th Century Romanticism with Tchaikovsky not far off in the background.

Two shorter works round off the album.  The three movement suite that D’Indy created from his incidental music for Karadec, Op. 34 (1890) are further examples of his application of folk tunes, in this case from the Breton region.  The final movement is even a “Breton Wedding,” which has an overly-dramatic beginning.  Last on the program is the symphonic poem Saugerfleurie, Op. 21 (1884).  The story is of a woodland fairy who is awakened by a hunt and subsequently is ill-fated to fall in love with the Prince.  Musically, D’Indy takes from his most influential composer, Wagner, both in the shaping of his love music and in references to Wagnerian motifs through how they are orchestrated here.  One might better place this in the line of Liszt symphonic poems and their thematic transformation techniques which is somewhat on display here, though D’Indy creates four distinct melodic ideas.

The pieces here are quite engaging late-Romantic works and anyone exploring this period of music history will find these to be interesting music outside the normal repertoire of the time.  One can certainly marvel at D’Indy’s orchestral writing in these pieces.  This is also brought out in the Malmo Orchestra’s performances here.  Ang’s shaping of the lyrical lines in this music helps make this more than a straight run-through reading.  That adds an extra dramatic flow to the music that helps it communicate well.  The only other recordings of these pieces are on two different Chandos albums.  They can come as recommended because they include other D’Indy pieces so having them all is certainly an option.  The opulence of the pieces are going to come across regardless and Naxos’ has the slight advantage in its budget bracket as usual.