Composer: Francis Poulenc, Maurice Ravel
Performer: Jessica Rivera, Chicago Symphony Chorus
Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Bernard Haitink
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CSO Resound
Catalogue: CSOR901906
Release: 2009
Size: 260 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Poulenc: Gloria
01. Gloria
02. Laudamus te
03. Domine Deus
04. Domine Fili unigenite
05. Domine Deus, Agnus Dei
06. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
07. Part I: Introduction
08. Part I: Danse religieuse
09. Part I: Les jeunes filles attirent Daphnis – Danse generale
10. Part I: Danse grotesque de Dorcon
11. Part I: Danse legere et gracieuse de Daphnis
12. Part I: Les rires s’interrompent – Danse de Lyceion
13. Part I: Une lumiere irreelle enveloppe le paysage – Danse lente et mysterieuse
14. Part II: Introduction
15. Part II: Anime et tres rude – Bryaxis ordonne d’amener la captive
16. Part II: Danse suppliante de Chloe
17. Part III: Aucun bruit que le murmure des ruisselets amasses par la rosee qui coule des roches – Le vieux berger Lammon
18. Part III: Chloe figure la jeune nymphe errant das la prairie – Devant l’autel des Nymphes
19. Part III: Danse generale
The Chicago Symphony Chorus takes centre stage in two gorgeous French works from the 20th-century on CSO Resound’s newest release. The 150-voice choir, under the direction of chorus director Duain Wolfe, sings Poulenc’s effervescent update of the latin Gloria with astonishing sensitivity and is the orchestra’s dynamic equal in Ravel’s ballet showpiece. Rising American soprano Jessica Rivera, known internationally for her performances in operas by John Adams and Osvaldo Golijov, made her CSO debut in the concerts in which this album was recorded. CSO Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink lends his gravity to these flamboyant works, allowing us to hear their inner workings as freshly as their composers imagined in the first French CD on CSO Resound, and the first Haitink release that isn’t a gigantic symphony.
“The exultant devotion of the music radiated from their singing. Haitink led a fervent performance, majestic for the opening ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo,’ light-footed thereafter.” Chicago Tribune
“Haitink had the whole enterprise in superb interpretive hands. [Chorus director Duain] Wolfe’s chorus was perfectly balanced.” Chicago Sun-Times
For the novice listener, this CD may not offer the ideal introduction to either work, but the performances of Poulenc’s Gloria and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé with Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus should interest any fan of the conductor, the orchestra, or the pieces themselves. In this live 2007 recording, Haitink and the CSO turn in performances full of buoyant rhythms, sparkling colors, lucid textures, and an irresistible joie de vivre. Poulenc’s Gloria receives a bright, ebullient performance that does not lack for depth in the central movements, but which still sings and swings in the outer movements. Ravel’s Daphnis gets a performance that glows with luminous colors, irresistible tempos, and a sense of inevitability that hold the work together as an aesthetic whole, despite its expansive length and teeming diversity. Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus turn in performances that rival the finest ever made technically, and the live digital sound is deep, clean, and balanced. Although there are recordings of each work neophytes should hear first — most notably, Decca’s ecstatic 1959 Daphnis et Chloé with Pierre Monteux and the London Symphony, and the joyous 1988 EMI recording of the Gloria with Georges Prêtre and the Orchestre National de France and the Chorus de Radio France — this disc has sufficient virtues to merit a hearing.