Georges Bizet - Symphony in C; Roma (Louis Frémaux)

Information

Composer: Georges Bizet

1. Symphony in C major: 1. Allegro vivo
2. Symphony in C major: 2. Andante - Adagio
3. Symphony in C major: 3. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
4. Symphony in C major: 4. Finale (Allegro vivace)
5. Roma: 1. Andante tranquillo - Allegro agitato (Une chasse dans la Forêt d'Ostie)
6. Roma: 2. Scherzo. Allegretto vivace 
7. Roma: 3. Andante molto (Une Procession)
8. Roma: 4. Finale. Allegro vivacissimo (Carnaval à Rome)
9. Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Louis Frémaux, conductor
Date: 1974
Label: Klavier (original on EMI)

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Review

Astonishingly, this seems to be only the third complete recording of Roma to be issued in this country. It is a work which had a long and chequered history, with its roots in a kind of programmatic symphony (later destroyed) that Bizet composed while spending his Prix de Rome at the Villa Medici, but the definitive form not receiving its first performance until five years after his death. Not altogether surprisingly, it is somewhat uneven, but it contains enough vitality, colour and invention, not to speak of Berliozian touches of unusual harmony, to make its comparative neglect regrettable. The present performance differs from Its predecessors initially in the internal balance between constituent instrumental lines sometimes for the better—really pianissimo slithering chromatics in the introduction, for example and less obtrusive punctuating chords at cadential points in the Andant—and sometimes for the poorer—at the opening of the Andante (which is taken slowly), the purely supporting lower strings should be much quieter than the melodic line in the firsts. Like Mansourian (Le Chant du Monde/Harmonia Mundi), Gardelli has all his first violins play the florid part starting 20 bars from the end of the Andante, which Fremaux allotted to a soloist. The biggest difference between the versions affects the finale, a carnival movement with markings of giocoso, con fuoco and finally (in very odd Italian) con furio. Fremaux caught its high spirits well, the Russians are really boisterous (though their sound is too coarse for a French view of levity), but Gardelli's idea of carnival is much more decorous and never catches fire.

This sobriety of approach is still more apparent in the delicious youthful Symphony, where competition is already keen. Leaving aside Beecham's elegant classic recording for EMI (though he had an indifferent oboist in the Adagio), Fremaux's well-shaped but slightly over-resonant version, and Marriner's exhilarating reading (Decca), with brilliant violins (also sure-footed and eloquent in their highest register) and Neil Black's beautiful oboe solo, there is the absolutely stunning performance by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (DG), where every detail makes its effect and the balance is perfect, and which has a wonderful springy freshness and virtuosity. (The fugue in the Adagio is marvellously crisp and pointed.) The present performance is efficient enough, but sparkle is sadly lacking: there is no mischief in either of the outer movements (the first taken at a comfortably bourgeois pace, and even the finale tame); and it is somehow significant that, alone of all the current versions except Doudarova's, Gardelli changes Bizet's B naturals in the folky tune above the drone in the Trio of the Scherzo to respectably conventional B flats. Tut, tut!

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone

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Georges Bizet (25 October 1838 – 3 June 1875) was a French composer of the romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death. Carmen, his final work, has become one of the most popular and frequently performed in the entire opera repertoire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Bizet

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Louis Frémaux (born August 13, 1921, Aire-sur-la-Lys, France) is a French conductor. He was noted for being the principal conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1969 to 1978 and Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1982.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Fr%C3%A9maux

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