Les Siecles - Ravel: Daphnis & Chloe on CD

Description

'Daphnis and Chloé' is conceived as a ballet in one act and three parts, and tells the story of the love between the shepherd Daphnis and the shepherdess Chloé. A warlike tableau is framed by two pastoral ones: in the first, Daphnis and Chloé acknowledge their mutual love following a dance contest that provokes the jealousy of each of them in turn. The interruption of a group of pirates, who abduct Chloé, puts an end to the rejoicing. The second tableau depicts the pirate camp; the captive girl is commanded to dance for her abductors. In the final tableau, Chloé is restored to Daphnis through a miracle of the god Pan, whom the nymphs have called on for help. After miming the tale of Pan and Syrinx, the young lovers let their joy burst forth in a General Dance of dazzling orgiastic virtuosity. The orchestral forces are the largest Ravel ever employed and he adds a mixed chorus that sometimes hums and sometimes sings. As we have come to expect, François-Xavier Roth, in his début for harmonia mundi, has gone through Ravel's much-amended score with a fine-tooth comb and subsequently showed himself capable, in a historically informed performance, of reproducing with the musicians of Les Siècles all the transparency and stylistic precision one could wish for in Ravel s masterpiece. 'Daphnis et Chloé is part of the large-scale project we embarked on with Les Siècles in 2009: the odyssey of the Ballets Russes. To celebrate the centenary of that incredible artistic adventure, we wanted to reconstruct the Parisian orchestra that premiered these works in order to restore their original colours...As with each work of the Ballets Russes that we ve played so far, we noticed just how remarkably the instruments of Ravel s time, those French-built instruments typical of the early twentieth century, do justice to this music and make it meaningful!' FXR [from the booklet essay] Review 'Roth s performance shows what it can do within seconds: his very distinctive woodwind solos floating over a carpet of diaphanous string tone. There's some impressive flute work from Marion Ralincourt, her tighter, more focussed sound an asset in music which mustn't sound too baggy and diffuse. Plus, Roth knows how to lift the rhythms and move things along. Start compiling a list of ear-tickling details and you'll need a long piece of paper. I was bowled over by the very French-sounding bassoons and narrow-bore trombones in the Danse grotesque de Dorcon how refreshing to hear Ravel s actual notes rather than well-upholstered murk ... This music has rarely been played with such panache ... The third section s dawn chorus are brilliantly characterised, leading to an uproarious, punchy Danse générale. Vocals, from Ensemble Aedes, are nicely-balanced, and technically it all sounds wonderful' --Graham Rickson The Arts Desk, 13th May 2017