Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 "Organ"; Dukas: L'Apprenti Sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice)
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
James Levine's is currently the hottest version of the Sorcerer, rivalling the old Toscanini account in impetuosity, but far better recorded. The choice of companion piece is a good one, though the length (47:05) is unpleasantly short for a full-price disc. --Ted Libbey
Customer Reviews
Awesome in its beauty
Before purchasing this disc, I scoured Amazon and other sites to find the definitive recording of this work. A consensus that I found was that the Boston Symphony recording with Charles Munch was the benchmark, and I checked out a copy of that recording, as well as one by Jean Martinon, from the library. Giving them a listen, I found that I definitely preferred the Munch, but I couldn't get past the dated audio quality. I wanted pristine sound as well as performance.
Hence began a search of as many online samples I could find to make a determination, using of course the "Maestoso" as the point of comparison. The Berenboim recording sounded fine to me, but at a $30+ price point, I decided against it. Then I tried the Karajan, which sounded totally wrong to my ears. Lastly, I tried this Levine recording, and I found it to be sublime. The strings over the arpeggiated piano was magical, and then the organ comes in and sends you soaring. The sound was crystalline. I knew this was the recording for me.
The entire symphony sounds gorgeous, and the Sorcerer's Apprentice is a great bonus (much better than the unfortunately hiss-filled track on my Fantasia album). I can see where this could be considered to have a heavy "Germanic" sound that may not be exactly proper for a French Romantic composition, but with a recording this lush, I don't care. In fact, I think I prefer it.
I can't speak for purists, being ignorant in such matters, but as a casual listener, I can't give this disc a higher recommendation.
Levine brings down da house
Before listening to S.S.'s symphony "with organ" , I thought of him as mainly a composer of short pieces and symphonic poems with virtuoso parts for piano or violin, but after listening to this work, I wonder what other marvels maybe hidden among his other almost completely unknown symphonies. His use of counterpoint and experimentation with harmony, together with complex thematic development, reminds me of Berlioz, Schubert and late romantic composers like Bruckner, but it is set apart from these by a tendency to be concise, and to play more with harmony, this last pointing forward to modernism, specially that portrayed by Debussy. To me S.S. is at his most innovative in the second movement, where the slow rhythm allows him to try different harmonies while languorously developing the movement's subtly melancholic theme, which makes me think of loss, amplified by the sombre, piano tone of the organ. The third and fourth movements are more traditional, but the fourth uses the organ's and brass' harmonic potential to full effect, coming to its absolute zenith in the final, victorious coda.
This is also the first time I listen to Levine conducting, as I associated him mostly with opera, a form I am not very familiar with, and I was really surprised by his interpretation - specially by his emphasis on clear phrasing through almost perfect coordination between the different sections of the orchestra, together with a willingness to take on fast tempos, something lacking in many composers these days, who want to emphasize the dramatic merely by slowing down, to the point of - if I may exaggerate -sometimes turning an allegro into an andante. In this, his interpretation resembles what many agree is the best performance of this work, that of Ormandy with the Philadelphia, which achieved even faster tempos AND better, clearer phrasing across the entire orchestra. This recording stands above the Ormandy/PO's in its denser color, which at least one reviewer finds to be too Brucknerian - I suppose because of the emphasis on the heavy brass and the darker overtones of the organ's bass register. It is not an unfair criticism - but I don't think the sound of the strings and woodwinds has been overwhelmed by this emphasis.
What I don't think is fair is a criticism based on some hazy concept of national musical traditions: those who call Levine's interpretation as "too Germanic" have to remember that Berlioz, no less a Frenchman than S.S., was one of the main influences on Wagner's gargantuan sonorities (check out the orchestration for Berlioz's Requiem Mass, with its four brass choirs each with up to four each of trumpet, tuba and trombone; 12 pairs of horns and a percussion section made up of more than a dozen different drums). So this talk of "Gallic charm" and too "Germanic" interpretations seems too subjective and vague to be of any value. And one shouldn't forget that both Bruckner and Saint-Saëns (and Franck, another Frenchman, whose symphony in D minor also makes heavy use of fortissimos on the brass) were virtuoso organists - perhaps the key to a faithful interpretation lies there.
Dukas' "Sorcerer's Apprentice" is an impressive symphonic poem that achieves its dramatic effect by its gradual increase of the orchestra's sonority, demanding more intensity from the brass at key moments later in the piece, and saving the fortissimos for then instead of saturating the audience with loud music, which diminishes their dramatic effect. Levine conducts it with the same energy and search for perfection present in his interpretation of S.S.'s symphony "with organ."
An incisive, dramatic performance, in better sound than Karajan's
Every breakthrough in audio technology calls for this show-off piece to be recorded again. James Levine's reading of Saint-Saens' massive "Organ" Sym. #3 was DG's bid for a sonic spectacular, even though they already owned Karajan's magisterial version with the same Berlin Phil. Despite some digital glare in the upper strings and brass at loud volume, they succeeded in advancing the knock-out power of organ, pianos, and massed brass in the finale, the payoff movement. Simon Preston interprets the organ part very musically--it isn't just amorphous thunder--and Levine's overall approach is crisp and brisk. That's a help in a work that can sound tubby and whose slow movement is a rather uninspired semi-dirge. Karajan didn't have sound this good, and his reading by comparison has a touch of pomposity. The filler is a Sorcerer's Apprentice played with wonderful panache. Highly recommended for audio buggs, even if you already own a classic like Munch and the BSO on RCA.
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