The concept–a collection devoted to all of the music written at the beginning of the 20th century in Paris for Les Ballet Russes–is excellent, but the execution to date has been very unimpressive. The performance of Chout is very good, but why do just the suite? You can get a better performance from Järvi on Chandos, and a fine version of the entire work from Jurowski on CPO. Chout is one of Prokofiev’s best early works in any form, full of irrepressible inspiration and brilliant color, and it’s a pity that Kirill Karabits, who obviously has a feel for the piece, isn’t given the entire disc to himself.
As to the Falla, Fabrice Bollon seems to have few good ideas about how the music should go. Right from the opening, with the fanfare taken far too quickly, it’s obvious that this is going to be little more than a superficial run-through, and so it proves. The big set-pieces are fast and loud, but so much of the colorful detail that Falla built into the music goes missing, and neither Bollon nor the orchestra seems inclined to give the piece the sharp rhythmic profile that it ideally needs. Sonics are good, but it doesn’t matter. Too bad.
