You have to be stuck playing snare drum or triangle in the Symphonie espagnole’s finale, after six long rehearsals in as many days with a second-rate violinist in a third-rate university orchestra to appreciate just how quickly you can come to hate this music. I mean really, really hate it. So it’s a tribute to Grumiaux’s magnificent musicianship, to the ever-characterful, vivacious support of Manuel Rosenthal, and to the tangy French sonority of the Lamoureux Orchestra, that I love this performance so much. These guys know how to make the music swing, as much in the clunky opening and the often-uninspired third movement Intermezzo (what a fine, singing tone Grumiaux has!) as in the graceful, smiling “finale from percussion hell”. The couplings are every bit as wonderful: unfailingly elegant Saint-Saëns, a smolderingly passionate Chausson Poème, and a Ravel Tzigane to rank with the best. Good, clean sound wraps up a treat for fans of great violin playing, French music, these artists–oh, just buy it, for Pete’s sake. If I can come to love it, just imagine how much easier it will be for you.
