It’s good to see John Neschling’s series of recordings for BIS continuing with this fine Respighi disc from Liège. Brazilian Impressions may not be one of Respighi’s more important pieces–there was a long period of time when the only available recordings were Dorati’s on Mercury Living Presence–but the music is super atmospheric, and the use of the Dies irae chant melody to represent the snakes at Butantan reveals a wry sense of humor not often associated with this composer. The work is played as well as as on any competing recording, and the SACD sonics both here and in La Boutique fantasque are stupendous.
As for the ballet, it always has been one of Respighi’s most popular works, as much for the Rossini originals adapted for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes as for the colorfully scored settings themselves. Neschling’s performance rocks. Exciting numbers like the Tarantella, the Cossack Dance, the Cancan, and the final Galop have tremendous energy, but elegance and swagger too, while the Valse lente and Nocturne ooze a particularly Rossinian brand of unsentimental poetry that no one else quite matches. Respighi’s arrangements, it’s worth stressing, really do make it seem as if the music was composed for orchestra all along. A delightful disc, both musically and sonically.
