The introduction of digital recording techniques coincided with the end of Edo de Waart’s lengthy tenure as music director of the San Francisco Symphony and produced a series of fine recordings for Philips, including some excellent Respighi tone poems and a spectacular Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony. This Peer Gynt was another worthy effort, eclipsed in the intervening years by Blomstedt’s equally fine take on the complete incidental music as well as the suites with this same orchestra for Decca. At Eloquence prices, it makes quite a bargain. De Waart reveals a keen sense of both the music’s drama (Peer Gynt’s Homecoming) and color (Dance of the Mountain King’s Daughter). He manages a moving Ase’s Death that doesn’t drag, and has the wonderful Elly Ameling handling the solo turns. His chorus doesn’t characterize the music the way Beecham’s does, but then again no one else’s ever has. The addition of Marriner’s excellent Holberg Suite completes a very attractive package, though the absence of texts, as always with this series, is annoying as well as ultimately self-defeating. (Do the folks at Universal think prospective buyers are willing to fork over triple the price of this disc to learn that during In the Hall of the Mountain King the chorus is screaming “Kill him!” in Norwegian, or will they simply choose a more user-friendly budget or mid-price alternative?) [6/18/2001]
