d'Indy - Volume 4 from Chandos

[M. Henriksen]

I'm sure many of you are already aware of this February release from Chandos, but I made a post anyway!

The 4th volume in Chandos' series of d'Indy's orchestral music contains his early "Italian" Symphony and the late Poème des Rivages. Both works have been recorded before, most recently by Timpani if I remember correctly.

Still it's good to see that this series is ongoing.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Chandos/CHAN10660


Morten

[Pengelli]

Yes,I just combed through the list about an hour ago. The more the merrier!

[Pengelli]

The Timpani recording of the Symphony has D'indy's 'Concerto for flute cello,piano & strings' as a coupling. I like the samples I've heard of this,so I think I might go for the Timpani,as I already have the 'Poeme' on an earlier release,and I think the Concerto sounds lovely,the sort of thing that French composers are so good at. Also,I don't think the 'Poeme des Rivages' is one of his best pieces.
Negative point: I don't get to wallow in the famous 'Chandos sound'.
Plus pont:          A more interesting & unusual coupling,Timpani's sound quality is usually
                          good & probably more suited to this kind of repertoire,(Chando's recording
                          quality can be a bit 'boomy'. Also,I get one of those nice cardboard cases.
Verdict:              My vote goes for the 'Timpani'.

[Pengelli]

Downloading 'Timpani' instead,as it's cheaper,and I may have enough spare readies for the Chandos series,which I've been collecting. Their recording of D'indy's third symphony is a case in point. The 'Auvidis Valois' was pretty good,but it was the Chandos which made me realise just how good it really was.
If only I could get Chandos interested in the Tournemire symphonies!

[eschiss1]

hrm... I already have an LP of the concerto (with the puckish suite op.24) though...
(a point of contact, one of very many I'm sure, between d'Indy and Ropartz... the minuet of the suite op.24 and the scherzo of Ropartz's F major string quartet no.6 have very, very weird trios, with repeated musette-like? background notes that keep implying the wrong keys...)

[Alan Howe]

The Chandos CD contains what seems to me to be an undisputable masterpiece - the glorious Poème des Rivages of 1919-21. Of course, one has to like the Franck-meets-Debussy idiom (which I do), but the orchestral writing is so wonderful, the colours so multifarious and the continual flow of incident so enthralling that I for one cannot resist. Superbly atmospheric playing is conjured from his Icelandic players by conductor Rumon Gamba and the Chandos engineers respond as only they seem able. Quite magical stuff.

A final thought: the work is described as a "Suite symphonique en quatre tableaux", but it's surely a symphony in all but name. Back to that topic again!!

The early Symphonie italienne makes a substantial coupling. A great release.

[alberto]

I expressed the suggestion - or doubt - about the true nature of "Poème des Rivages" on a post dated 6 march 2011.
I love very much the Poème: I have got both the Prètre (Emi) and Krivine (Timpani) recordings.
I have even an Haenssler record titled "classical music about  trains (!)", which contains (besides the obvious Honegger, Villa Lobos, Lumbye, J.and E.Strauss...) only the movement "Horizons verts, Falconara". That movement, playful as it is, appears to me sligtly under the (very, very high) level of the other three of the "Poème des Rivages".
To anybody interested in recording archaeology, I point out the existence of a recording by d'Indy himself of "Le Camp the Wallenstein": I've got in a remote LP by the obscure Canadian label Rococo (with Rabaud, Schmitt and Honegger conducting themselves). I don't know if it is the only witnessing of d'Indy as conductor, and if it was ever transferred to CD.   

[eschiss1]

shouldn't a recording of classical music about trains contain music by Seiber, Alkan (I think) and... erm... anyway.  back to d'Indy... (actually, I think the connection of the Seiber quartet with trains was kind of tenuous anyway. (Fellow Cornell-person ) Steve Reich's Different Trains, now...)

[alberto]

Here is the program of Haenssler D-71087( Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern, cond. Jiri Starek- 2006)
"Railroad rhytms - Classical Music about trains":
-Lumbye: Kopenhagen Eisenbahn-Dampf Galopp
-Copland: John Henry. A railroad ballad.
-Alois Paschernegg (subject for a topic?): Unter Dampf! Ein Zug faert vorueber.
-Ibert: Le Metro (from orchestral suite "Paris").
-Eduard Strauss: Bahn Frei!, op.45.
-d'Indy: Horizon vertts - Falconara (from Poème des Rivages).
-A.Dvorak: Humoreske op.101 n.7 (orch. B.Leopold). (I don't know why).
-Villa Lobos:O Trenzinho do Caipira (from Bachianas Brasileiras n.2).
-Revueltas: Construction of the Railroad (from Musica para Charlar).
-Eduard Strauss: Mit Dampf!, op.70.
-H.Rosenberg: Railway Fugue (from Voyage to America)
-J.Strauss jr.: Vergnuegungszug, op. 281.
-L-Bernstein : Subway ride and imaginary Coney Island (from On the Town).
-Honegger: Pacific 231.