Ernest Bour was a conductor of unassuming excellence who made his interpretive points not through attention-grabbing distortions of tempo and oddities of phrasing, but through his remarkable ear for balance and color as well as for his ability to sustain rhythmic tension throughout a movement or work. This Le tombeau de Couperin, for example, first appeared more than a decade ago in an Auvidis “Bour box”, and it’s probably the finest performance available. Tempos are perfect: listen to the solo oboe in the Prélude as it actually phrases the melody and suggests a feeling of joy. Usually the player is simply hanging on for dear life. The concluding Rigaudon also makes lively sense out of Ravel’s vigorous patterns of notes, while the inner movements are supple, flowing, and achingly beautiful. Everything tells, and no detail is slighted. It’s about as close to perfection in this work as I ever hope to hear.
Shéhérazade, with Arleen Augér in terrific voice, is every bit as fine, enticing us to join her on an exotic journey in which Bour wrings an amazing amount of color from Asie while still clearly preserving his role as accompanist. Both of the latter songs manage to be languorous without ever turning lazy or static, leaving Augér plenty of latitude to relish the word-setting. And does she ever! It’s just wonderful listening. Menuet antique sounds fine, as it almost always does, and I doubt anyone especially cares. Tzigane is good, not great, with Pina Carmirelli a touch stressed in the opening cadenza–but then it’s not one of Ravel’s better pieces to begin with. The two Daphnis Suites are quite distinctive, perhaps a touch underpowered in the final Bacchanal, but clear as a bell. Bour allows you to hear more of Ravel’s textural, harmonic, and melodic subtleties than just about anyone else, finding music where so many others merely make noise. The engineering, dating from 1967-77, is consistently good for its vintage. A true collector’s item.
