Jules Massenet is known for operas, Manon and Werther above all, but in his own time, he was a popular figure who wrote a good deal of orchestral music and even a piano concerto. The composer stated that he was temperamentally unsuited to symphonic writing, and indeed, most of the music here is dramatic: there are two overtures, a ballet suite, and a set of incidental music, all of which could have been instrumental interludes in operas. These are attractive enough, especially the incidental music Les Érinnyes ("The Furies" ...
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Jules Massenet is known for operas, Manon and Werther above all, but in his own time, he was a popular figure who wrote a good deal of orchestral music and even a piano concerto. The composer stated that he was temperamentally unsuited to symphonic writing, and indeed, most of the music here is dramatic: there are two overtures, a ballet suite, and a set of incidental music, all of which could have been instrumental interludes in operas. These are attractive enough, especially the incidental music Les Érinnyes ("The Furies"), with elegant Saint-Saëns-like dances that are on the edge of neoclassicism. Conductor and French music specialist Jean-Luc Tingaud has a way with these, although the Spanish-flavored Espada Suite suffers from a somewhat lumbering quality. The real news here, however, is the symphonic poem Visions. It is broadly in the Liszt tradition, but it has all kinds of unusual effects, including a wordless soprano solo. Foremost among them a harp-and-violin duet with an offstage drone,...
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