First of all, there's many discs that are selling today claiming to be the 'Best of Beethoven', or the 'Greatest hits of Bach' etc, these 'Essential' Composer discs from Decca do not fall into that same category, these double discs aren't made up of the best little bits, but rather whole works, with an Overture or Aria thrown in for good measure, two well filled discs [149 minutes], by well known Conductors / Soloists, a great little compilation of one Composer.
Zubin Mehta is from India, he's now 76, he recorded this work in 1970, now the front cover picture [by Michael Banks] is very inspiring, showing a close up of a sunflower, look at those rich yellows and blues, as with these 'Double Decca' discs, the photo is spliced in two, with a more opaque picture at the top, with all the lettering, it's great the way it's all composed, i like the whole thing.
I enjoyed all of these discs, i especially enjoyed listening to Danse Macabre again, what a great and inventive piece of music it is!, but the pride of place has to go to Saint-Saens Symphony 3, dubbed his 'Organ Symphony', notice it's not an Organ Concerto, every movement of this Symphony was scintillating, the key is in C Minor, but rather than a dull and foreboding work, it's actually full of sprightly rhythms and virtuoso writing, and yet in the heavenly slow movement there's tender pathos aplenty, but it was the first that i found simply tremendous, a slow thoughtful introduction [0:00-1:01], but it soon branches out into something so much more animated, Saint-Saens really knows how to throw some rhythms together to excite the ear and heart, nicely jagged string writing, and a great use of the woodwind instruments, and there's this headlong surge to the whole movement, it's really going somewhere, it's surprising how Saint-Saens can use the opening Allegro Moderato in so many different guises, i love the way that he brings the tune to a glorious forte [4:06-4:33], string working away furiously, and then the brass to create a fanfare of sorts, staccato is the name of the game in some of the rhythms right after, notice the frantic woodwinds about two thirds of the way through [6:19-6:24], nicely chattering, and that builds up to one of the best forte passages of the whole work [6:34-7:03], nice and complex, the whole orchestra throwing their voices into the stew, and right after the strings and brass create a nice duet [7:03-7:38], the strings working away feverishly, while the brass create a real foreboding, the thing slows down into a coda of sorts, readying itself for the truly beautiful Poco Adagio that is to follow, my favourite movement, but today i loved the first movement.
Here's Myung-Wha Chung conducting the first movement on YouTube.
Here's Myung-Wha Chung conducting the first movement on YouTube.
