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Friday, October 19, 2018

Camille Saint-Saëns; Paul Paray - Symphony No. 3; Mass for Joan of Arc (Paul Paray)


Information

Composer: Camille Saint-Saëns; Paul Paray
  • (01) Saint-Saëns - Symphony No 3 in C minor "Organ", Op. 78
  • (05) Paray - Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc

Marcel Dupré, organ (1-4)
Frances Yeend, soprano (5-8)
Frances Bible, mezzo-soprano (5-8)
David Lloyd, tenor (5-8)
Yi-Kwei Sze, bass-baritone (5-8)

Rackham Symphony Choir (5-8)
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Paul Paray, conductor

Dates: 1956 (5-8), 1957 (1-4)
Label: Mercury
http://www.deccaclassics.com/en/cat/4327192


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Review

Paul Paray was not a conductor who happened to compose, but a real composer in the late, great French Romantic tradition. His Mass for the 500th Anniversary of the Death of Joan of Arc is a glorious piece of writing. Why it has remained unknown is a complete mystery, but if you love the Requiems of Fauré or Duruflé, then you will enjoy this work equally. You don’t have to take my word for it though. Just listen to the opening of the Agnus Dei (sound clip), and if that tune doesn’t grab you, then I give up. The work has four movements (omitting the Credo, which was chanted at the actual service in Rouen for which the piece was composed in 1931). There is another very good performance available on Reference Recordings, but the composer’s own finely sung and perfectly paced version carries with it a special authority, and it receives the full Mercury Living Presence treatment. 

When Universal tapped producer Wilma Cozart Fine to begin remastering the Mercury Living Presence catalog for CD release, I begged her to issue this performance, and was delighted to learn that she had it on the schedule, coupled to Paray’s exceptional Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony. This marvelously well-engineered version features legendary French organist Marcel Dupré, and it stands with Munch, Ormandy (Sony) and de Waart/San Francisco (Philips) among the top recommendations for the work. Excitingly intense in the opening movement, serenely flowing in the Adagio, wonderfully pointed rhythmically in the scherzo, and uncompromisingly grand in the finale, it makes the perfect partner to Paray’s Mass. This release remains one of the gems of the Mercury Living Presence catalog, an ideal mix of the familiar and unfamiliar.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

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Camille Saint-Saëns (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist. Saint-Saëns was a musical prodigy, making his concert debut at the age of ten. He was a successful freelance pianist and composer, in demand in Europe and the Americas. His best-known works include his concertos, his 3rd symphony, Danse macabre and The Carnival of the Animals. Saint-Saëns was enthusiastic for the most modern music of the day, although his own compositions were generally within a conventional classical tradition. Saint-Saëns' students included Gabriel Fauré.

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Paul Paray (24 May 1886 – 10 October 1979) was a French conductor, organist and composer. He is best remembered in the United States for being the resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for more than a decade and made numerous recordings for Mercury Records' "Living Presence" series. Paray specialized in the French symphonic literature, but he could and did conduct the entire orchestral repertoire well. One of his most renowned recordings is that of the Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 in C minor "Organ" with organist Marcel Dupré, being among the most authoritative readings of the work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Paray

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