Naxos has thoughtfully boxed up Stéphane Denève's complete Roussel symphony cycle, thus providing an excellent excuse (once again) to give it the strongest possible recommendation and to urge you to snap it up without delay. There have been excellent individual performances of these works over the years--Munch in Nos. 3 and 4; Martinon and Eschenbach in No. 2; Bernstein in No. 3--as well as a few decent if not thrilling cycles, but none so consistently fine overall as this. Similarly, the complete Bacchus et Ariane is well served (by Tortelier on Chandos), and so is the second suite, but Denève's interpretation ranks right up there with the best. His Scottish orchestra plays with all of the necessary gusto and rhythmic fire, and the sonics leave little or nothing to be desired. Here's one collection with no weak links at all--you can buy all four discs together with total confidence. [7/21/2010]

--David Hurwitz