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Debussy: La Mer; La Boite a joujoux; Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune; Three Preludes. Sir Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. EMI 7243 5 58045-2.
You'd think by the number of recordings Sir Simon Rattle was making for EMI that he was the only artist they had under contract. I exaggerate, but if you had to have only one conductor right now, you could do worse than Rattle. This time out, the maestro gives us an album of Debussy, a couple of warhorses and a couple of less well-known items.
The warhorses are La Mer and Prelude a I'apresmidi d'unfaune. Practically every conductor on the planet has recorded them at one time or another, so there's plenty of competition. In both works, Rattle opts for a light, dreamy, ethereal, almost surreal effect, with the EMI engineer helping out with a relatively soft, slightly distant, although extremely dynamic sound. This delicate, airy approach is at the expense of much excitement, which works fine in the Prelude but leaves La Met somewhat wanting for passion. A quick comparison to Andre Previn (EMI), Bernard Haitink (Philips), Herbert von Karajan (DG), and Geoffrey Simon (Cala) reveals greater degrees of color ...
Source: HighBeam Research, Debussy: La Mer; La Boite a joujoux; Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un...