Denève proves to have substantial
credentials as a Roussellian in this
admirable conjoining of the Third Symphony and both of the Bacchus
et Ariane
suites. He starts as he means to go on; the incisive and
dramatically pounding rhythms of the introductory measures alert
one both to the clarity and precision of his beat and also to
the tactile and intensely emotive support offered by his collaborators,
the really on-form Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He spins
admirably light textures too and generates a splendid lift in
the more refined and lyric material of the first movement. On
the debit side some may find more personality in the doughtily
held convictions that, say, Cluytens
expressed hereabouts. His orchestra may have been less
nimble but the sense of idiomatic struggle he generated was
emotive and not a result of executant fallibility.
Still, those who find in Roussel’s slow movement a core of powerful emotionalism will
find Denève wholly admirable. String
tone is warmly moulded, the tonal blend throughout the string
choirs has been assiduously attended to, and the sense of diaphanous
colouration is pervasive. This fulsome self-expression lends
the movement a vibrancy and intimacy
that encompasses a Mahlerian hint
or two; and the climax is genuinely powerful and brilliantly
played. Still, to point out contrasting features, you might
note that Cluytens with his Paris orchestra (EMI and Testament) is a minute quicker
than the newcomer and presents an altogether cooler, more remote
picture and is far less inclined to lay emotive cards on the
table. Such divergences are of course consistent. Denève’s scherzo is lightly and brightly
etched; Cluytens goes for a pawky and slower moving edifice. Both take an identical tempo
in the finale though Denève’s rhythmic
profile is more athletic, his rhythms more incisive; Cluytens
remains more earthy and rambunctious. Denève
is rich topsoil to Cluytens’s clay.
Similar virtues attend the two
suites. He can certainly make a Roussel
conductor like Prêtre sound staid
and more than a touch square, though Prêtre
(the EMI sets are however not complete) of course has qualities
of his own. Denève sets a cracking
pace in the appearance of Bacchus in Suite I. Here he really
is full of crackle and dynamism, those accents biting with Stravinskian
fire. He’s not as urgent as Prêtre
in The Dream of Ariane in Suite
No.2 but the playing is full of maximal clarity and verve, despite
the relatively slower tempo. Try the Bacchanale – excellently projected, genuinely intense
and with whiplash orchestral responses.
If that’s what you seek in Roussel then this newcomer has bounty to offer. It’s full
of vitality and dynamism and is superbly recorded.
Jonathan
Woolf
see
also Review
by Colin Clarke June BARGAIN OF
THE MONTH
Royal Scottish
National Orchestra/
