Debussy and Ravel are unfortunately not given their due artistic respect in this album, which is overall too slow and lacking in energy. In Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune the rather lethargic introduction and flute solo do not make the music come alive. A few minutes into the piece, the strings are sweeping and the orchestra comes into its fullness, but this simply does not give the listener the full effect of Debussy and his use of orchestral tone colors. The sound mixing is not ideal in this piece or in most of the ...
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Debussy and Ravel are unfortunately not given their due artistic respect in this album, which is overall too slow and lacking in energy. In Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune the rather lethargic introduction and flute solo do not make the music come alive. A few minutes into the piece, the strings are sweeping and the orchestra comes into its fullness, but this simply does not give the listener the full effect of Debussy and his use of orchestral tone colors. The sound mixing is not ideal in this piece or in most of the album, for the harp is not very audible, and the higher voices also suffer. Radnofsky's saxophone solo in Rapsodie is played with great agility, like a clarinet. But the recording quality is simply too soft, even if Masur leads the orchestra to a loud fury at the end with majestic and grand brass. There are some lovely moments, especially in La Mer, where the orchestral unisons are well-synchronized, and beautiful lines overlap like waves, with tinkling passages in the upper registers....
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