Ravel sacd set

The post that got waylaid would be a good subtitle for todays offering because it was going to come last week but unfortunately events intervened and that was it. 

The French had a way with classical music taking over after the romantic period and the bombast of Wagner, taking things down to a smaller more intimate scale with lush orchestration which can be seen in music of Debussy and Ravel.

There are a couple of connections which is that in the main Debussy work at and for the piano and it was Ravel who worked on the orchestrated versions.

The other is in this recording which was part of series Jean Martinon conducted with the Orchestre de Paris which covered both composers and to which I have their Debussy on two sets of two standard cds.

This set of four super audio cds contains the finest complete series of this music from the over popular Bolero,the Ma Mére I'Oye ballet, Daphnis et Chloe, Une barque sur L'océan, his concertos and Pavane pour une infante défunte originally recorded for SQ quadraphonic surround sound in 1974.

This was re-issued at the beginning of 2021 from the original analogue tapes by Warner Japan who own British Emi and Emi Angels recordings in conjunction with Tower Records in a set limited to just 800 of which mine is no 173

The transfer to super audio cd is excellent sounding very fresh and open and like all the disc s in this series has a layer that plays on regular cd playing equipment.

While it wasn't cheap, I really enjoyed listening to it.