There’s plenty of color and sparkle in Georg Solti’s Gaité Parisienne, leading as he does with his characteristic energy and consummate sense of style. The various dances spring with vitality thanks to the conductor’s emphasis on rhythm and articulation. Also, Solti’s preference for full-bore brass sonority adds a certain muscularity to this usually light-textured music, which at times creates a circus tent-ish atmosphere. (You can almost see jugglers, tumblers, and hoop-jumping poodles as you listen to track 15: Allegro-Cancan). Gounod’s Faust ballet music receives pretty much the same treatment, although the score’s tender moments present more opportunities for Solti to wax lyrical. The 1961 recording has satisfying presence and fullness but suffers from distortion in the loudest passages.
No such issues hamper Decca’s 1968 Rossiniana recording, its sound unencumbered by any limitations. This sense of freedom also informs Ernest Ansermet’s stirring performance of Respighi’s clever Rossini arrangements and paraphrases, marvelously played by the Suisse Romande orchestra. In all it’s a well planned and highly enjoyable program–irresistible at the Eloquence price.
