Paul Gilson La Mer

[Alan Howe]

Well, I haven't had so much sheer fun in ages (musically speaking, that is!) Paul Gilson's Symphonic Sketches La Mer for orchestra, saxhorns and men's chorus from 1892 is just the sort of late-romantic riot of piece that I didn't think was out there waiting to be discovered. I know the work's been mentioned before here, but I must recommend the stupendous CD which contains it on the Et'cetera/Klara label, with the Flemish Radio Orchestra under that intrepid explorer of unsung music, Martyn Brabbins.
Excerpts here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gilson-Orchestral-Works-Paul/dp/B000K4X9AO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1373407575&sr=8-2&keywords=gilson
Apologies if you already know the piece (there's a download available in our archive). Oh yes, the idiom? Wagner/Dukas via Rimsky-Korsakov about covers it. Superlative stuff!

[ewk]

Hi Alan,

The link in the Downloads archive seems broken, anyone who could re-upload the work?

ewk

[motiaan]

Hi,

there is a YT-upload http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6RLeU1cfKE

[Alan Howe]

The link in the Downloads archive seems broken, anyone who could re-upload the work?

Any offers?

[eschiss1]

motiaan- that's a video, not an audio upload, but thanks. (and no, I don't have software to convert one to the other )

[Delicious Manager]

Something of an aside: does anyone know for sure if he was a French-speaking Belgian (in which case his name would be pronounced 'zheel-son(g)' (nasal 'on' in the French way) or a Flemish-speaking one (in which case it would be 'hil-sohn' (with a gutteral 'h' as in Dutch)? He was born in Brussels (officially bi-lingual, but predominantly French), but lived and worked in both French- and Flemish-speaking regions and also named his pieces in both languages. It would be nice (for pedantic people like me) to know for sure.