Roger Desormiere - Roger Desormiere: Complete Decca Recordings [CD]

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A landmark tribute to Roger Desormiere, a great French conductor of the mid-twentieth century, including many recordings new to CD. \r
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A car crash in March 1953 cruelly cut short the career of Roger Desormiere, who at the age of 53 had already established a reputation as one of the most insightful French conductors of his or any previous era. The resulting stroke left him barely able to communicate, incapable of work. His pupils, including Pierre Boulez, were distraught, but Desormiere clung on for thirteen painful years, eventually dying a broken man. \r
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Desormiere\u2019s legacy on disc is a case of what might have been. Record companies showed little interest in recording the modern repertoire of which he was so stylish and dedicated an interpreter, at least the equal in this regard of Hans Rosbaud and Rene Leibowitz. His one indisputable classic of the gramophone is the 1941 HMV recording of Pelleas et Melisande, but he recorded much else for several different labels. \r
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The present set brings together all his Decca recordings for the first time, made in mono between 1947 and 1951, newly remastered and constituting a substantial tribute to a musician of manifold gifts. As a regular conductor of both the Ballets Suedois and the Ballets Russes in Paris, Desormiere gave the premieres of Satie\u2019s last two ballets; Decca captured his mastery of ballet conducting in suites of Scarlatti, Chopin, Delibes and Tchaikovsky. Of music from his own time there is Poulenc\u2019s Les Biches, and the Divertissement of Ibert from 1951 (his final Decca recording), both done with the most refined ear for orchestral texture. His disc of lyric and coloratura arias with Janine Micheau unites him with a singer who, like him, brought a light touch to everything she did. \r
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On a visit to London in May 1947 Desormiere undertook his only recording assignment for Decca in the UK, recording in a single day Bizet\u2019s Jeux d\u2019enfants and Patrie Overture, Debussy\u2019s Marche ecossaise and Chabrier\u2019s Habanera, in Kingsway Hall, with Sidney Beer\u2019s body of freelance players, the National Symphony Orchestra. Every other recording was made with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, and each one has a character as Parisian as the Tuileries and the Bateaux-mouches. \r
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\u2018A lovely voice and most accomplished coloratura \u2026 The orchestral playing and the recording are both good.\u2019 Gramophone, April 1949 (Proch/Thomas)\r
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\u2018played and recorded as well as they are ever likely to be\u2019 High Fidelity, January 1953 (Poulenc, Scarlatti)\r
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\u2018The whole thing sounds like a sketch from a sophisticated revue. Desormiere points the jokes without overdoing them, and the recording is agreeable.\u2019 The Record Guide, 1955 (Ibert)\r
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\u2018The performance captures, with affectionate irony, the atmosphere of the period in which the music was conceived ... and the recording is wonderfully realistic.\u2019 The Record Guide, 1955 (Poulenc)\r
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\u2018The orchestration is done with a very nice sense of style and the suite is sprucely played.\u2019 The Record Guide, 1955 (Scarlatti)\r
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\u2018Janine Micheau has been much admired \u2026 she always seems to enjoy exceptionally good recording.\u2019 The Record Guide, 1955 (Micheau recital)\r
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\u2018These charming and delicately scored ballets receive from Desormiere and the Paris orchestra a charming and delicate performance.\u2019 The Record Guide, 1955 (Delibes)\r
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\u2018The conductor delivers fresh, lively readings \u2026 that hit precisely the right moods. His Divertissement is wonderfully sarcastic, with more guttersnipe attitude than in any other version I've heard. The Sleeping Beauty suite never loses its transparency, poise, or light-footed fleetness, nor The Good-Humored Ladies its wit and vigour.\u2019 Fanfare, September 2004\r
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*FIRST INTERNATIONAL CD RELEASE ON DECCA

BIZET Patrie \u2013 Overture*

TCHAIKOVSKY The Sleeping Beauty \u2013 Suite, Op. 66a

CHOPIN\u2013DOUGLAS Les Sylphides*

GOUNOD Ah ! Je Veux Vivre (Rom\xe9o Et Juliette)

BIZET Jeux D\u2019enfants \u2013 Petite Suite*

OFFENBACH Les Oiseaux Dans La Charmille (Les Contes D\u2019Hoffmann)

GOUNOD O L\xe9g\xe8re Hirondelle (Mireille)

THOMAS Je Suis Titania (Mignon)

PROCH Deh! Torna Mi Bene (Air And Variations)

IPPOLITOV-IVANOV Causasian Sketches \u2013 Suite No. 1*

CHARPENTIER Depuis Le Jour (Louise)

CHABRIER Habanera*

DEBUSSY Marche Ecossaise*

DELIBES Copp\xe9lia \u2013 Suite*

SCARLATTI\u2013TOMMASINI The Good-Humoured Ladies*

IBERT Divertissement*

DELIBES Sylvia \u2013 Suite*

POULENC Les Biches \u2013 Suite