If the suites from Bizet's Carmen and L'Arlésienne have become overly familiar and even stale from too many humdrum recordings, then this lively disc may rescue them -- and listeners -- from the Slough of Despond. Myung-Whun Chung's 1991 recordings with the Orchestre de l'Opéra Bastille are exceptionally vivid and engaging, and a sense of theatricality pervades these concert suites, making them sound for once like music for the stage. Chung draws a wonderful array of timbres from the orchestra, and inspires his musicians to ...
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If the suites from Bizet's Carmen and L'Arlésienne have become overly familiar and even stale from too many humdrum recordings, then this lively disc may rescue them -- and listeners -- from the Slough of Despond. Myung-Whun Chung's 1991 recordings with the Orchestre de l'Opéra Bastille are exceptionally vivid and engaging, and a sense of theatricality pervades these concert suites, making them sound for once like music for the stage. Chung draws a wonderful array of timbres from the orchestra, and inspires his musicians to deliver these works with spontaneity and fresh expression. The Carmen Suite benefits the most from Chung's heightened colors and vigorous interpretation, and the brisk pacing and bright sonorities reawaken the operatic impulse, which is often lost in the concert hall. Though the music from L'Arlésienne has long been divorced from Daudet's stage play and seems less obviously dramatic than Carmen, Chung sustains interest by highlighting subtleties in the orchestration and infuses the...
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