Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane, Suite n° 2

I'm listening a little further afield in turn-of-the-century French music. Although the very first pages of Roussel's second Bacchus et Ariane suite connect rather well with the soundworld of Debussy's Martyre, they already date from the early 1930s, however. The influence of Stravinsky and Les Six becomes much more apparent once Ariadne has been raised from her slumber and the more energetic dealings with Bacchus and his crowd get under way. I listened to three different versions of the suite and as so often they made for very different listening experiences.

The Chandos recording made by Neeme Järvi at the beginning of his tenure with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (early 1990s) sounded bloated and uninvolving. The sparkle that characterised the orchestra's recordings of French repertoire under Paul Paray in the 1950s seemed to have all but gone. Then Stéphane Deneve with the Scottish National Orchestra on Naxos. His series of  recordings of Roussel's orchestral works has been critically acclaimed. This CD features the Third Symphony and the two Bacchus suites. Compared to the Järvi, the performance sounds more thought-through and more sophisticated. A nice bonus is that the different sections of the ballet are separately cued so that it is easy to relisten specific episodes. Despite the obvious qualities of the recording I had the persistent feeling that the orchestra was not with its heart in the music. Deneve skillfully guides us through a colourful storybook, spotlighting many of the orchestral felicities, but ultimately fails to really engage us.  In the frenzied finale the orchestra seems to go on autopilot. The recording sounds rather cavernous, with the brass ostensibly sitting miles behind the string section. So, I have mixed feelings about this one.

Markevitch and his Lamoureux Orchestra, taped by DGG engineers in 1960, eat these two CDs for breakfast however. It's one of these cheap Resonance pressings but it sounds truly awesome. The recording is admittedly a little dry and airless (I can't detect almost no ambient atmosphere) but that is compensated by the terrific liveliness of the playing. It's as if one is sitting on the concertmaster's lap, so close and realistic is the sound of all the orchestra groups: the barking horns, the swirling winds, the double basses sharp as daggers, the clattering timpani. Listening to this recording one easily forgets the ballet story. It's just a blazing piece of absolute music with the angular and vibrant energy of a Matisse painting. Markevitch keeps an iron hand on the proceedings, nicely moulding the ebb and flow and propelling the Lamoureux to a Dyonisiac finale. Great stuff, no doubt about it.