Ravel ‘Daphnis’ from Strasbourg

Aziz Shokhakimov’s continuing success with the Strasbourg orchestra is exemplified in this recording. Good timing, too, given the Ravel celebrations this year.

Recently, we covered a live performance in Strasbourg of Stravinsky’s Rite could with are Debussy (Printemps) and a Mozart Piano Concerto. And here we have a faultless performance of Ravel’s great ballet score, complete, Which puts us in something of.quandary: John Wilson’s Chandos recording of the complete score, which I (at the time) put at the top of a pile that includes Monteux and Munch; we also heard the Suite No. 2 at the Royal College of Music, as well as Suites Nos. 1 & 2 from Stan (Stanisław Skrowaczewski) and the Minnesota Orchestra.

The Warner recording is just a touch warmer than the Chandos. Shokhakimov’s trademark discipline, never clinical, is in evidence in this performance. The dynamic range of the recording is vast, as it should be for this score; you might need to turn the volume up at the opening, in which case beware late on! But the female voices of the Chorus of the Opéra du Rhin (based in Strasbourg, of course) a perfectly distanced at the opening, rising to the perfect presence around 2″30 into the Introduction; they are perfectly placed in teh sound picture in the “interlude{ between Parts I and II, also.

There is a real sense of ecstasy to the “Danse réligeuse”:

… and real character to the woodwinds in “Danse générale”:

… while Shokhakimov bings real power to the “Danse lent et mystéieuse des Nymphes”:

Part II brings a fearsomely energised “Danse guerrière”; Shokhakimov reminds us there are massive contests in Ravel’s music:

.. while in Part III the famous sunrise glows: there is no glare here, more of a proper rising (“Léver du jour”)”:

If the final “Danse générale” has more rawness elsewhere, it nevertheless exemplifies many of Shokhakimov’s core traits, super-fine precision of execution prime amongst them:

This disc is available at Amazon here. Streaming below:

Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé | Stream on IDAGIO

Listen to Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé by Aziz Shokhakimov, Choeur de l’Opéra national du Rhin, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Maurice Ravel. Stream now on IDAGIO

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