Thanks for this, Dave, and for your comments about Igor Markevitch as a conductor. I have several of his Philips LPs of the early Tchaikovsky symphonies and have always enjoyed those performances. I've also given them as gifts. It's so good to see you here with these RUclips video reviews, and to be able to associate your face and voice with your many reviews from ClassicsToday.com. I hope this channel will reach a wide audience. David
Thank you for posting this. Many years ago I was in an amateur choir that performed this and fell in love with the work. The Markevitch recording was the one I bought on lp at the time. I think it has a few cuts, although I am not sure that this matters too much. One can also find a live performance he conducted a year or so earlier at Montreux with Gedda, Crespin & Blanc - very exciting, but much poorer sound. Two recent recordings conducted by Rattle and Nelsons don't seem to convey so much devilish fun as Markevitch, at least to my ears. Stay well. Best, Louis
As a hybrid UK/French person myself, I can agree totally with the comments you make about trying to sing in French.... thank you for a brilliant recommendation.
Thank you very much for these clear and fair explanations. As a French person, I can only confirm the specificities of the pronunciation of this language and I very much regret the lost know-how of current singers. You rightly underline the qualities - also lost - of the French orchestras of these years. Another era ... fortunately we still have these recordings. Thank you again !
In the early 1970s I was introduced to this piece when I attended a live performance by the Boston Symphony/Seiji Ozawa in Carnegie Hall (I went because a friend of mine was in the chorus). After that experience I wanted it on LP, and the DGG recording featuring the same forces came out around that time. It was good to have it- the BSO was the most French-sounding orchestra in the USA at that time- but the sound was somewhat reverberant (probably recorded in Symphony Hall Boston) and rather weak tea after the live experience with its blazing brass and tam-tam smashes in the pandemonium section. It’s still my only recording, so I will have to look into the Markevitch version. Thanks for another great review!
I have been playing the hell out the Inbal’s for about a year now and was just starting to consider tracking down another version. So of course I immediately searched for a Hurwitz video about it. Found this one from 3 years ago, and it looks like it has all the information I need.
The best thing about this performance is that French speakers can understand every word of it. As a French speaker, I must say I have never understood a single word from any performance of La Damnation de Faust by non-francophone casts (like the ones that sung in the London Philharmonic's version that has a lot of views on youtube). It's such a shame because the text has such beautiful poetry and some great puns. This is also one of the few versions in which the acting is really great, which is an absolute necessity in this "légende dramatique", whose plot is really a great one unlike most operas. Unfortunately, most opera productions don't care for servicing the plot, and treat the whole opera as a showcase of vocal and orchestral mastery instead of a genuine dramatic performance. But in this version, this is not the case. In the taverne scene, a bunch of drunks sing a sarcastic Amen to a story rat; Markevitch has his singers sing it not with perfect accuracy, but very sloppily, like actual drunks would! This adds so much liveliness to this opera. Finally the male singers in this version have great breath control, and they keep their vibratos to a minimum.
The best Hungarian March will ALWAYS be the one by Stanislas Lefort, of course... But seriously, for me, the yardstick of any good _Damnation_ is how well it pulls off the Trio from the 3rd part (Allons, il est trop tard). That quickly reveals any shortcomings: the quality of the soloists and whether they are balanced, the quality of the orchestra, everything. It also reveals whether the conductor understands the dramatics, as Mefisto's "je vais te saisir" until then muttered under Faust and Marguerite's singing, needs to be audible by the end of the scene as the "reveal". My favorite, also for sentimental reasons, is still Georges Prêtre's with the Paris Opera forces, Janet Baker, Nikolai Gedda and Gabriel Bacquier on EMI. Bacquier is particularly excellent as a suitably vile Méfistofeles. But it goes at a breakneck clip and I can understand that is not to everyone's liking. For masochists, there is also the equally interesting and awful recording Furtwängler made at Lucerne (in German), which may actually be the worst thing he ever did. Here, he clearly had no clue what he was doing. Weirdly though, the hellish choir and Hungarian march are among the most exciting I know, but the dramatic parts just disintegrate. And really, the translation doesn't help.
Ditto for the yardstick of this piece. I always go to 'Allons, il est trop tard' as well. It cannot be urgent enough! So for my money you can find that hurriedness no better than Myung-Whun Chung and the Philharmonic Orchestra. Excitement galore! The entire recording is superbly recorded and balanced between soloists and orchestra. I would rate it as an updated version of this one (Markevitch). And if you want to hear how the Hungarian March should be done, i.e. accelerate mercilessly at the end, check out the Szell (who else?) Tokyo performance from one of his final concerts, May 1970.
@@moby628 I agree that the Chung is great, possibly the best modern recording. There's only one thing I don't like about it, but unfortunately it's a big thing and I really don't like it: Von Otter. A great singer, but not so much in this repertoire. Her voice doesn't blend all that well with Tyrfel's or Lewis's, and she's often difficult to understand. The sonics don't help; her voice sounds strangely recessed relative to the others, as though she's standing five meters further back.
@@bomcabedal I'm afraid you are right. For "D'amour l'ardente flamme" I always go to Mathis and the great Larry Thorstenberg on English horn (Ozawa BSO). After his solo you really don't need a soprano entrance! 😎
David, as usual you are right on. I had the Markevitch on LP in the early 70"S and was glad to find it again on youtube. Would you please consider reviewing the Berlioz Requiem? Ansermet and Colin Davis are my picks.
Excellent and most interesting review. This RUclips channel seems a great idea. It's good that the record companies are still producing cds like this. A lot of Markevitch's recordings are becoming hard to obtain on cd (without buying big boxes). I have to say though it's no fun trying to get these cds out of their sleeves. I am not a fan of these book-type formats.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I do second this request when you have the time, Dave! I have loved the work for 50 years (how did I get this old?), particularly the orchestral bits, tho' much of the choral writing is of immense genius and beauty as well. As was oft pointed out, the 'Meyerbeer-ian' finale is a bit of a sound and furry anti-climax (once the poignant and musically wonderful death of the lovers occurs, who wants to listen to the gasbag Friar berate the crowd for 10 minutes)! But I consider it still a work of immense musical quality. It's influence on Liszt and Wagner's thought about what an orchestra could really do, and on musical color (Bernstein famously illustrating how Richard 'borrowed' from it, so impressed with it was he) was also of great significance. I would love to hear your own thoughts about it. Both full versions, and of the conductors who did the best orchestral excerpts. Here's looking forward to it someday...
Thank you David for this superb review. I will have to stop following you on youtube because you are starting to cost me a lot of money! I have already ordered the Mozart box by Sandor Vegh and the Russian music disc by Petrenko. I think that this time I'm going to stay with my version of La Damnation de Faust with the Boston Symphony and Seiji Ozawa! A record that I really like! Thank you!
I think the Ozawa is great too, so you're in good shape. His Romeo and Juliet is even better! That's my reference recording for the work. Thanks for your kind words and comments. Enjoy the Mozart! It's very special, and do let us know if you agree.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for this, Dave, and for your comments about Igor Markevitch as a conductor. I have several of his Philips LPs of the early Tchaikovsky symphonies and have always enjoyed those performances. I've also given them as gifts.
It's so good to see you here with these RUclips video reviews, and to be able to associate your face and voice with your many reviews from ClassicsToday.com.
I hope this channel will reach a wide audience.
David
Thanks for sharing this. The recipients of your gifts are lucky folks!
Thank you for posting this. Many years ago I was in an amateur choir that performed this and fell in love with the work. The Markevitch recording was the one I bought on lp at the time. I think it has a few cuts, although I am not sure that this matters too much. One can also find a live performance he conducted a year or so earlier at Montreux with Gedda, Crespin & Blanc - very exciting, but much poorer sound. Two recent recordings conducted by Rattle and Nelsons don't seem to convey so much devilish fun as Markevitch, at least to my ears.
Stay well.
Best, Louis
As a hybrid UK/French person myself, I can agree totally with the comments you make about trying to sing in French.... thank you for a brilliant recommendation.
Thank you very much for these clear and fair explanations. As a French person, I can only confirm the specificities of the pronunciation of this language and I very much regret the lost know-how of current singers. You rightly underline the qualities - also lost - of the French orchestras of these years. Another era ... fortunately we still have these recordings. Thank you again !
You are welcome!
In the early 1970s I was introduced to this piece when I attended a live performance by the Boston Symphony/Seiji Ozawa in Carnegie Hall (I went because a friend of mine was in the chorus). After that experience I wanted it on LP, and the DGG recording featuring the same forces came out around that time. It was good to have it- the BSO was the most French-sounding orchestra in the USA at that time- but the sound was somewhat reverberant (probably recorded in Symphony Hall Boston) and rather weak tea after the live experience with its blazing brass and tam-tam smashes in the pandemonium section. It’s still my only recording, so I will have to look into the Markevitch version.
Thanks for another great review!
I have been playing the hell out the Inbal’s for about a year now and was just starting to consider tracking down another version. So of course I immediately searched for a Hurwitz video about it. Found this one from 3 years ago, and it looks like it has all the information I need.
The best thing about this performance is that French speakers can understand every word of it. As a French speaker, I must say I have never understood a single word from any performance of La Damnation de Faust by non-francophone casts (like the ones that sung in the London Philharmonic's version that has a lot of views on youtube). It's such a shame because the text has such beautiful poetry and some great puns.
This is also one of the few versions in which the acting is really great, which is an absolute necessity in this "légende dramatique", whose plot is really a great one unlike most operas.
Unfortunately, most opera productions don't care for servicing the plot, and treat the whole opera as a showcase of vocal and orchestral mastery instead of a genuine dramatic performance. But in this version, this is not the case. In the taverne scene, a bunch of drunks sing a sarcastic Amen to a story rat; Markevitch has his singers sing it not with perfect accuracy, but very sloppily, like actual drunks would! This adds so much liveliness to this opera.
Finally the male singers in this version have great breath control, and they keep their vibratos to a minimum.
The best Hungarian March will ALWAYS be the one by Stanislas Lefort, of course...
But seriously, for me, the yardstick of any good _Damnation_ is how well it pulls off the Trio from the 3rd part (Allons, il est trop tard). That quickly reveals any shortcomings: the quality of the soloists and whether they are balanced, the quality of the orchestra, everything. It also reveals whether the conductor understands the dramatics, as Mefisto's "je vais te saisir" until then muttered under Faust and Marguerite's singing, needs to be audible by the end of the scene as the "reveal".
My favorite, also for sentimental reasons, is still Georges Prêtre's with the Paris Opera forces, Janet Baker, Nikolai Gedda and Gabriel Bacquier on EMI. Bacquier is particularly excellent as a suitably vile Méfistofeles. But it goes at a breakneck clip and I can understand that is not to everyone's liking.
For masochists, there is also the equally interesting and awful recording Furtwängler made at Lucerne (in German), which may actually be the worst thing he ever did. Here, he clearly had no clue what he was doing. Weirdly though, the hellish choir and Hungarian march are among the most exciting I know, but the dramatic parts just disintegrate. And really, the translation doesn't help.
Ditto for the yardstick of this piece. I always go to 'Allons, il est trop tard' as well. It cannot be urgent enough! So for my money you can find that hurriedness no better than Myung-Whun Chung and the Philharmonic Orchestra. Excitement galore! The entire recording is superbly recorded and balanced between soloists and orchestra. I would rate it as an updated version of this one (Markevitch). And if you want to hear how the Hungarian March should be done, i.e. accelerate mercilessly at the end, check out the Szell (who else?) Tokyo performance from one of his final concerts, May 1970.
@@moby628 I agree that the Chung is great, possibly the best modern recording. There's only one thing I don't like about it, but unfortunately it's a big thing and I really don't like it: Von Otter. A great singer, but not so much in this repertoire. Her voice doesn't blend all that well with Tyrfel's or Lewis's, and she's often difficult to understand. The sonics don't help; her voice sounds strangely recessed relative to the others, as though she's standing five meters further back.
@@bomcabedal I'm afraid you are right. For "D'amour l'ardente flamme" I always go to Mathis and the great Larry Thorstenberg on English horn (Ozawa BSO). After his solo you really don't need a soprano entrance! 😎
In that sample Dave played I suddenly thought of the Prelude to Bernard Herrmann's North by Northwest. Driving rhythm, grit. Hmmmm
David, as usual you are right on. I had the Markevitch on LP in the early 70"S and was glad to find it again on youtube. Would you please consider reviewing the Berlioz Requiem? Ansermet and Colin Davis are my picks.
David, have you heard the John Nelson issued on Erato which has been highly touted by various people? The Markevitch recording is slightly muddy.
It's in my pile of "to do" stuff. The sonics on the Markevitch are, in fact, perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned, and a lot better than most.
But would Johannes Wofgang von Goethe who wrote the Faust legend have approved? I am sure he would...
Excellent and most interesting review. This RUclips channel seems a great idea. It's good that the record companies are still producing cds like this. A lot of Markevitch's recordings are becoming hard to obtain on cd (without buying big boxes). I have to say though it's no fun trying to get these cds out of their sleeves. I am not a fan of these book-type formats.
Thanks for writing. I agree about the packaging. I wonder how they got them in there in the first place!
Thought about doing the Berlioz Romeo and Juliet?
Yes.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I do second this request when you have the time, Dave! I have loved the work for 50 years (how did I get this old?), particularly the orchestral bits, tho' much of the choral writing is of immense genius and beauty as well. As was oft pointed out, the 'Meyerbeer-ian' finale is a bit of a sound and furry anti-climax (once the poignant and musically wonderful death of the lovers occurs, who wants to listen to the gasbag Friar berate the crowd for 10 minutes)! But I consider it still a work of immense musical quality. It's influence on Liszt and Wagner's thought about what an orchestra could really do, and on musical color (Bernstein famously illustrating how Richard 'borrowed' from it, so impressed with it was he) was also of great significance. I would love to hear your own thoughts about it. Both full versions, and of the conductors who did the best orchestral excerpts. Here's looking forward to it someday...
Thank you David for this superb review. I will have to stop following you on youtube because you are starting to cost me a lot of money! I have already ordered the Mozart box by Sandor Vegh and the Russian music disc by Petrenko.
I think that this time I'm going to stay with my version of La Damnation de Faust with the Boston Symphony and Seiji Ozawa! A record that I really like! Thank you!
I think the Ozawa is great too, so you're in good shape. His Romeo and Juliet is even better! That's my reference recording for the work. Thanks for your kind words and comments. Enjoy the Mozart! It's very special, and do let us know if you agree.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Allright,Ill take note!
Not all the cast was French. Consuelo Rubio was Spanish, actually. Thanks... I'll keep on listening.
I know, but trained in the right style...
Berlioz' second wife was a singer whose mother was Spanish. So that might count for something.
@@classicalduck And, according to Berlioz himself, "she meowed like half a dozen cats".
The recording has some pointless and annoying cuts
I said it has a couple cuts. They don’t matter.