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REVIEWS

CLASSICAL COMPACT DISC SUPERAUDIO DVD BLU-RAY VINYL DOWNLOAD

HALLÉ ORCHESTRA/SIR MARK ELDER
Debussy: Images; Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune;
La plus que lente, etc
Hallé CDHLL7554 (downloads to 44.1kHz/24-bit resolution)
A fine addition to the Hallé Debussy series

where, for me, the standout tracks are the
composer’s atypical transcription including
cymbalom, La Plus Que Lente, and with fl autist
Katherine Baker, L’Aprés-midi – one of the most
satisfying accounts we have had on records.
There is also a bonus item: Colin Matthews’
orchestration of the Image for piano ‘Et la lune

decend…’. The five movements making up
the orchestral set were well done by the San
Francisco Symphony in the 2016 Tilson Thomas
remake, but the British players have the edge,
and there’s more warmth and depth in Sir
Mark Elder’s interpretation, with a winningly
colourful evocation of Spain in ‘Iberia’. CB

Sound Quality: 90%
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AKADEMIE FÜR ALTE MUSIK BERLIN/ SINFONIA OF LONDON/JOHN WILSON CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA/FRANZ
BERNHARD FORCK Respighi: Fontani di Roma, Pini di Roma, WELSER-MÖST
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 1 & 2; CPE Bach: Feste Romane Schubert: Symphony No 9/Krenek: Static and Ecstatic
Symphonies Wq175 & 183/4 Chandos CHSA5261 (SACD; downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution) Cleveland Orchestra TCO0002 (downloads to 48kHz/24-bit res)
Harmonia Mundi HMM902420 (downloads to 96kHz/24-bit res) Key recordings of Fountains/Pines date A Paul Sacher commission, Static and
The two early Beethoven Symphonies back to Toscanini and the NBC, with Ecstatic by the serial composer Ernst
here are each prefaced by short three- Reiner’s and Karajan’s in the stereo era. Krenek was written for chamber orchestra
movement ones by CPE Bach, which Aptly recorded in the generous acoustic with piano and a large assortment of
prove far less conventional and extremely of St Augustine’s, Kilburn, John Wilson’s percussion instruments popping up across
adventurous (for which they were disliked coupling – prefaced by the blockbuster the soundstage. It has ten short movements
by Frederick the Great, to whom Bach’s Feste Romane – is another Sinfonia winner. (19½m overall) and ends like a kick in the
son was in service). Beautifully balanced by It’s the quiet playing that impresses most. teeth with barely a pause before the utterly
the engineers in this Sept ’18 Teldex Studio In the most beautiful Pines movement, ‘I poised horn solo in Schubert’s ‘Great C
production, Forck’s measured accounts pini del Gianicolo’ the recording used for major’. Both pieces were recorded live with
of the Beethoven place them fi rmly in the nightingale is unusually distant (a minor a minimal Severance Hall audience just as
‘classical’ territory, ie, they don’t suggest a disappointment?) and the clarinettist really the pandemic limitations began in March.
new musical force emerging, but they are deserved a credit. The following trudge of An odd but repeatable coupling: my one
wholly engaging and satisfying and utterly the Roman soldiers sets the pulse racing… reservation is that the Schubert Scherzo
free of eccentricities. CB Well researched booklet notes too. CB has one or two quirky underlinings. CB
Sound Quality: 90% Sound Quality: 90% Sound Quality: 85%
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DECEMBER 2020 | www.hifi news.co.uk | 103