MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline


Félicien César DAVID (1810 - 1876)
Le Désert - Ode Symphonie en trois parties for speaker, solo tenor, male chorus and orchestra (1844 )
Bruno Lazzaretti (tenor); Oliver Pascalin (speaker);
Chor der St-Hedwigs-Kathedrale, Berlin/Roland Bader
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra/Guido Maria Guida
rec. Berlin, Philharmonie, 15 June, 22 December 1989. first issued 1991.
CAPRICCIO 5017 [51:19]
Experience Classicsonline


Surely it cannot be a coincidence that this exotic reissue from the Capriccio back-catalogue has come just now.

Phoenix Edition, who seem to have access to licences for most of the Capriccio material, have just issued a very idiosyncratic collection of three discs. This draws on late-1980s recordings made by Capriccio on the theme of Les brises d'Orient. The major rarity in that set was Le Sélam by Reyer. You remember Reyer's name? He wrote an opera on Salammbo and a Wagnerian tribute drama called Sigurd - I hope that one day they will be revived and recorded. The strange thing was that aside from packing that Phoenix Edition set with much that was popular and easily available elsewhere they had omitted Le Désert which had formed part of the original series. Here it is now but re-issued on Capriccio.

David did not see the twentieth century, dying in 1876 at the age of 66. His music on this evidence - the only I have heard - is smoothly romantic. It is at times rather like ceremonial grand Berlioz or Verdi's Aida. His Ode symphonie bears a resemblance in broad scheme to the exotic symphonies of Benjamin Godard (1849-1895). who wrote the Symphonie Orientale and Symphonie Gothique which have been recorded in synthesised orchestral versions by Bhagwan Thadani.

After tribulations and tempest the Saharan caravan returns at the end of part 3 to the placid resumption of the journey. There's a touch of stormy upheaval in La tempête au désert. The second part is in six episodes which are calming and only in La Fantaisie Arabe and the La danse des almées is their a hint of exotic colour in the form of jingling janissary music and a measure of seduction. The influence of Berlioz is undeniable in the La liberté du désert. Le chant du Muezzin stands in a hybrid land between the authentic ululation of the call to prayer and French opera of the grand siècle of Meyerbeer and his lavish contemporaries. All in all it's not very exotic but it is interesting. The work ends in a grand Beethovenian unison with the orchestra. I wonder what else of Félicien David has survived?

Lazzaretti's oration is delivered in resoundingly convincing idiomatic French. He acts the text and varies his voice to match. Félicien David is well served here and the disc forms a timely reminder that musical France in the nineteenth century was a far more diverse place than we might expect from the few works recorded and the even fewer actually played.

The little essay is given in German, English and French but the sung and spoken text is in French and German only.

Rob Barnett

Detailed Track-Listing
Part I
1. Entry Into The Desert
2. Song Of The Desert/Glorification Of Allah
3. Appearance Of the Caravan
4. Progress Of The Caravan
5. Storm In The Desert
6. Calm Returns And The Caravan Resumes Its Progress
Part II
7. The Star Of Venus
8. Hymn To The Night
9. Arabian Fantasy
10. Dance Of The Almées
11. Liberty In The Desert
12. Reverie At Evening
Part III
13. Sunrise
14. The Call Of The Muezzin
15. The Caravan Resumes Its Progress
16. The Caravan Disappears Into The Distance
17. Song Of the Desert, Glorification Of Allah 

 
 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.