Charles Munch’s bold and beefy Debussy isn’t for adherents of the gauzier forms of musical “impressionism”, but taken on its own terms it’s pretty special. La mer’s highpoint comes in the center: an extraordinary “Play of the Waves” that perfectly captures the music’s capricious changes of texture and sudden surges. Images sports a superb “Gigues” and “Rondes de printemps”, and while Munch’s tempo free-for-all in the last movement of Iberia may raise an eyebrow or two, there’s no question that the orchestra’s with him 100 percent of the way. The Afternoon of a Faun showcases the superbly “French” sonority of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but it’s a pity that Munch only recorded the first two of Debussy’s three Nocturnes. Fêtes, in particular, boasts exceptional subtlety of color and rhythm at a surprisingly (for this conductor) measured tempo.
Printemps is simply spectacular: no other performance matches this one’s Dionysian abandon and sense of ecstasy. It’s too bad that RCA didn’t include Munch’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, which would have just fit with a little reshuffling of the other contents and made for a unique pair of Debussy discs. Still, these benchmark readings of Chausson’s Symphony and Poème (with David Oistrakh no less) offer substantial consolation, and very satisfyingly round out an essential collection of classic Munch recordings. RCA’s sound hasn’t dated a day. Marvelous. [9/4/2001]
