Comparison Recordings:
Saint-Saëns, Organ Symphony, Comissiona,
Baltimore SO, National Presbyterian
Church, DC, organ, Silverline [ADD]
DVD-Audio
Saint-Saëns, Organ Symphony, Munch,
Boston SO, Symphony Hall organ, [AAD]
JVC/BMG JMCXR-0002.
Debussy, La Mer. Reiner, CSO [ADD] RCA/BMG
09026 68079-2
Debussy, La Mer. Martinon, French N.B.O.
[ADD] EMI CDM 69587
Glazunov, The Sea, Neeme Järvi,
SNO Chandos CHAN 8611
Ibert, Escales. Ormandy, Philadelphia
SO [ADD] Sony SBK 62644
Ibert, Escales. Martinon, French N.B.O.
[ADD] EMI CDM 64276
This is certainly one
of the finest performances and recordings
of any piece of music ever done, even
though the Saint-Saëns Organ
Symphony is not the greatest music
ever written. However it enjoys an honourable
place on the third tier along with Rimksy-Korsakov’s
Scheherazade, Beethoven’s Pastoral
Symphony, Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony
and the Tovey Cello Sonata.
A number of RCA’s original
multi-channel master tapes — such as
the two channel master of Berlioz’s
Damnation of Faust with Munch
and the BSO and the four channel Enesco
Roumanian Rhapsody #1 with Stokowski
— have been reported "missing" over
the past decades, but we are advised
that his disk is made from the "newly
discovered" three channel master of
the Saint-Saëns. As to what transpired,
what midnight raids on warehouses in
New Jersey, what attorney mediated diplomacies
of plea-bargaining or promises of non-prosecution,
we are the benefactors and need not
enquire further.
Suffice it to say that
this is the finest recording of this
work ever done, easily blowing completely
out of the water with a single shot
all the competition listed above. It
casts its shadow not only into the past,
but into the far future. Before any
orchestra, conductor and organist should
essay to record this work, measure yourself
against this recording as a standard
— and despair.
If you have any interest
whatever in recorded sound, in French
music, let alone this particular work,
you must buy this recording. If you
don’t have an SACD player, buy one just
to hear this recording; but, until then,
the CD tracks are also very impressive,
noticeably finer than any previous version
of this tape on any CD issue, including
the premium priced JVC XRCD issue.
If, like me, your front
right and left speakers are large and
full range and you have a dialogue speaker
for your centre channel, you will get
the best sound from the two channel
setting on your SACD player. From my
experience with other recordings I would
speculate that if one were to have three
large high quality full range speakers
for the front channels, one would experience
greater depth perspective but no more
lateral separation.
Via his connections
to Russia by means of the Von Meck family,
Debussy must have been aware of Glazunov’s
The Sea, his opus 28, written
in 1889, 16 years before La Mer.
The opening of the Glazunov work is
almost identical to the opening of the
last movement of the Debussy and the
works use many of the same orchestral
devices to paint pictures of water.
Beyond these superficial similarities,
both works are completely original,
of course.
My first reaction to
this La Mer was one of disappointment,
but after the third hearing or so I
realised Munch wasn’t trying to imitate
Toscanini/Reiner/Karajan, et al.
He was working the same magic he worked
on the Ravel Daphnis et Chloe,
a slow, measured, sensual approach,
rich with orchestral detail, devoid
of big noisy climaxes.
You may prefer, as
I have heretofore, the Ormandy or Martinon
for Escales, and the Reiner or
Martinon for La Mer, but give
this recording a chance and you may
end up liking it as much or better and
certainly you will be hearing something
new in the music.
Paul Shoemaker
see also review
by Colin Clarke
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Charles Munch 
