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One soon forgets about the analogue hiss (and comparatively measly playing-time!) in the face of orchestral playing of such consummate refinement and breathtaking brilliance. Munch's
Sorcerer's Apprentice sets out a little stiffly, but the adrenaline soon kicks in, and there's a properly giddy sense of spectacle at its cataclysmic, fanfare-topped apex. Likewise, Saint-Sans's winsome tone-poem receives a performance of compelling power and polish: the Boston strings paint an incomparably elegant picture of Queen Omphale sitting at her spinning-wheel, while the minor-key central portion resounds with a hitherto unparalleled, slumbering menace. Note, too, the unexpected pathos Munch locates in the closing minutes. With Ravel's lovely
Mother Goose ballet suite comes the most affectionate performance of the four: there's some ravishing phrasing in both "Tom Thumb" and the concluding "Fairy Garden", and pungent characterisation is the order of the day elsewhere (especially in "Beauty and the Beast", with its growling double-bassoon contribution). That just leaves Franck's dashing
Le chasseur maudit, excitingly (if perhaps just a little heartlessly) dispatched here. Certainly, RCA's expert remastering ensure that these classic recordings have never sounded better.
--Andrew Achenbach