Serge Baudo and the Lyon symphony took Dutilleux’s First Symphony on an very successful tour, and I was happy to be able to see this beautiful work live, having already enjoyed the disc. On balance, this remains the performance of choice. The orchestra plays with devotion and a clear familiarity with the music. Baudo builds the opening passacaglia to a tremendously imposing climax, keeps the rhythms in the swift scherzo clean and tight, and projects the dense textures at the opening of the finale with the necessary transparency. It’s a great performance, and even though Dutilleux later added an interlude between the two movements of Timbres, espace, movement, Baudo’s performance shares the same virtues as that of the symphony. The sonics were state-of-the-art on initial release and still sound fabulous–and at reduced price it’s difficult to carp at the fact that the disc only contains about 48 minutes of music. A marvelous reissue of marvelous music. [12/9/2005]
