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The proper way to judge performances of particular works: Daphnis et Chloe

Posted by Chris from Lafayette (A) on February 15, 2021 at 19:50:44

Of course we know that recordings of Mahler's Second Symphony should be judged by how loud the organ part at the end is. Not loud enough? Into the rejects pile it goes!

Or in Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, it's the tam-tam part (or the gong, as I like to call it) on the last note which determines how good the performance is. No ringee long and loud enough, no goodie! (EDIT: I listened to the recent Nezet-Seguin / Philadelphia recording of the Symphonic Dances earlier tonight, and I give that recording full marks in the tam-tam department!)

I would now like to propose a method (or methodological means, if you will) for determining how to assess performances of Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe" - the complete ballet naturally, not merely the second suite with which the Philistines and Plebeians are satisfied. And this "methodological means" is: to determine how well the Wind Machine fits into the texture.

My insight is prompted by a recording I recently obtained of Daphnis et Chloe on the Pentatone label by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxemburg, conducted by Gustavo Gimeno, the orchestra's music director since the 2015/16 season. It's evident from this recording that Gimeno sees the soloistic potential of the wind machine and desires that this instrument emerge from the surrounding orchestral texture almost as a concerto soloist! This is the most prominent wind machine I've ever heard on a recording of this work. And not only is it prominent, but its sound has a higher "center of gravity" (I won't say pitch - although Wikipedia says it's pitched; well, OK, let's say it's got a higher pitch for a lot of the time) than any other wind machine I've heard. While I applaud Gimeno for seeing the potential of making the wind machine into a solo instrument, I'm not entirely happy with the results. In fact, I much prefer wind machine players who cause their instrument to submerge its sound into the surrounding texture, only emerging for brief periods of dominance, just like the real wind does - as in every other recording you'll hear of this work!

Overall verdict: interesting, but not convincing. I'll stay with the Cluytens, the Monteux, or the '62 Munch recording in 2Ch, or the Gergiev/LSO recording in MCh (despite its Barbican location). (My real preference in MCh would have been the Skrowaczewski/Minnesota recording on MoFi - but he only does the two suites, not the whole ballet.) And of course there are many more excellent recordings of the ballet besides what I'm recommending here in this post.

BTW, in the single review of this performance which appears on Amazon right now, the writer is puzzled that the identification of the chorus does not appear either on the booklet cover or on the back of the insert in the case. So he identifies it as "some unknown group". But if he had checked a little more carefully, he would have found that the chorus WAS identified on the back as the WDR Rundfunkchor Koln. (Maybe he doesn't read German?) At least he and I are in agreement that they're excellent! ;-) (And these are difficult choral parts - especially that part where they're unaccompanied, before the entrance of the pirates.)

Edits: 02/16/21

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