Orchestral works by the biggest name in Flemish music of
the last two hundred years. Paul Gilson (1865 - 1942) is most famous
for having composed a symphonic portrait of the Sea which inspired
Debussy to compose his own La mer. It even opens in a
softly-glowing, wavering harmonic cloud that fits right in alongside the
more famous work - though before long it gets more traditionally
Romantic, with hints of Liszt and Saint-Saëns. That evocative work leads
off this disc, along with Gilson's excellent Scottish Melodies, the impressionistic Prelude from his incidental music to Alvar, and his Russian-tinged Symphonic Overture #3. Frederic Devreese leads the Moscow Symphony Orchestra on this 1995 Marco Polo CD.
From the American Record Guide review:
This is part of the Anthology of Flemish Music series. I got to know a lot of Belgian music in the 70s and 80s through Cultura and Decca LPs I obtained from the Belgian Music Center in Brussels for use on my WGUC Radio program. They included a fine recording of Gilson's La Mer and Variations Symphoniques on a Decca LP. The music of Paul Gilson (1865-1942) is rooted in Strauss, Wagner, and the Russian Five; and in La Mer he also used the cyclic principle of Franck. The four symphonic sketches that make up La Mer (37:33) date from 1892. I is an atmospheric 'Sunrise' and II an energetic, exuberant 'Sailors' Dance'. III, 'Twilight', is the longest sketch, at just over 17 minutes, and is made up of introspective and dramatic episodes. IV is a 'Storm' based on prominent, dramatic statements of the cyclic theme and a return of the Sailors' Dance. This very attractive piece has remained one of Gilson's best-known works and lifted Flemish music to an international level. David Moore reviewed a performance by Karl-Anton Rickenbacher on Discover 920126 in Jan/Feb 1995 and also recommended the work. Melodies Ecossaises (Scottish Melodies) is for strings and also dates from 1892. The annotator fails to mention the obvious Scottish dance nature of the work, especially in II, 'Sweet May Morning', and III, 'Jig and Song'. It is a lovely, lucid work, sometimes reminiscent in atmosphere of such later works as Holst's St Paul's Suite and Warlock's Capriol Suite. Coincidentally, there is a theme in I, 'Flowers of the Forest', that anticipates Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht. Alvar is a prelude from incidental music to a Belgian play and dates from 1893. It is predominantly somber, dramatic music, with frequent crescendos, ending with a quiet section dominated by a lovely English horn. Symphonic Overture, written in 1904, is a somewhat rambling work that seems less inspired melodically. This recording of La Mer differs from the Discover CD in that Devreese's orchestra is better, his strings smoother, warmer, and mellower, and his approach more subtle, more sophisticated and more impressionist in its shadings, but recorded at a lower level. Devreese is about 2:30 slower overall than Rickenbacher but takes the Sailors' dance at a slightly faster clip. Rickenbacher is more vigorous in I, II, and IV, his percussion more forward and louder, the sound rougher, with more contrasts in dynamics. On the Discover, La Mer is coupled with August de Boeck's Symphony in G, also a fine work. But there is an advantage to having this all-Gilson release as a reminder that he, along with Benoit, played a major role in Belgian music and was one of that country's most beloved composers. --Deiderik De Jong
Disc, booklet, and case are in mint condition.
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