Jules Massenet - Orchestral Works (Neeme Järvi)

Information

Composer: Jules Massenet

• Suite de ballet from 'Le Cid'
• Le Dernier Sommeil de la Vierge
• Overture to 'Le Roi de Lahore'
• Fantaisie, for Cello and Orchestra
• Ouverture de 'Phèdre'
• Scène religieuse from 'Les Érinnyes'
• Entr’acte Sevillana from 'Don César de Bazan'
• Scènes pittoresques (Suite for Orchestra No. 4)

Truls Mørk, cello

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Neeme Järvi, conductor

Date: 2014

Label: Chandos

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Review

The supreme operatic craftsman of the Belle Époque, Jules Massenet was a theatrical chameleon, able to lend each of his operas a unique musical colouring across a wide spectrum of historical and fictional settings. This new collection seems designed to show that his orchestral works are equally kaleidoscopic.

Of the three more substantial items, the two most familiar – the suite of Spanish regional dances from Le Cid and the atmospherically varied Scènes pittoresques – are played by Neeme Järvi and his Swiss orchestra with infectious panache and finesse. Rarer is the 1896–97 Fantaisie, with Truls Mørk matching the vibrant tone of his Montagnana ‘Esquire’ cello to the work’s nervy iambic opening. He mellows to a warmly expressive cantabile for the sweetly singing second theme and jauntily picks his way through the offbeat ‘quasi cadenza’.

The Norwegian cellist also plays admirably unsentimental accounts of that Beecham ‘lollipop’ Le dernier sommeil de la vierge (The Last Sleep of the Virgin) as well as the lesser-known Scène religieuse from the incidental music to Les Érinnyes (The Furies). This last piece, a more decorous take on the Elektra legend than Strauss’s, finds Mørk tenderly impassioned in the daughter’s desolate lament for her murdered father.

— Mark Pappenheim

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Jules Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer. Born near Saint-Étienne, France, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas and won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1863. Massenet composed more than 24 operas; his most famous works include Manon, Werther and Thaïs. In addition to opera, he wrote more than 200 songs, a piano concerto, orchestral suites and oratorios. Massenet was also highly influential as a teacher of composition at the Paris Conservatoire. Among his students were Gustave Charpentier, Ernest Chausson, Reynaldo Hahn and Gabriel Pierné.

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Neeme Järvi (born 7 June 1937 in Tallinn) is an Estonian conductor. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under Evgeny Mravinsky and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others. Järvi was Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony (1982–2004), Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1984–1988), Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1990–2005) and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (2012–2015), among others. He made over 400 recordings for labels such as BIS, Chandos and Deutsche Grammophon and best known for his interpretations of Romantic and 20th century classical music.

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