I already have a couple of recordings of Bolero but after watching this I was persuaded to seek out the Muti and the Philadelphia version. WOW! It took my breath away and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Superb! For me this is the definitive version. Thank you.
I've had BSO/Munch forever, so that's what I'm use to. Your recommendation of Ozawa gave me a chance to listen with fresh ears, as I hadn't put this on for a few years. Apart from Bolero, I'd recommend to readers to "keep on listening" to this CD. The BSO's performance of Une Barque sur l'Ocean is the loveliest I've heard. Surely the BSO is the best American orchestra for French repertoire.listen
In the 70’s I worked at Sam Goody in downtown Philly. A not so young woman came in and asked for a recording of Bolero. I had go through the well-filled browser but she couldn’t make up her mind. So I asked why she wanted it. “For sex.” I gave her Bernstein.
There was a Spanish percussionist, Enrique Llácer "Regolí" (born in 1934, still with us as of October 26, 2023), who specialised in the drum part of the Bolero. He would invariably start playing it with his fingers and then at a certain point he picked up the sticks with one hand and continued with his fingers on the other hand. The transition was always audibly flawless. However, I haven't been able to find visual records of this transition from hands to sticks. Mstislav Rostropovich used to call him "the Rostropovich of percussionists". I saw him perform it once or twice, probably with Jesús López Cobos, who was the principal conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra in the late 1980s and early 90s.
On Fridays and Saturdays, Tower Classical Records was open until 1:00 AM. Some of our most annoying customers were inebriated couples who'd show up right before closing time and ask, "Do you have Bolero?"
I was about to write you about including Muti's recording, and there it was. I have specific insight about this recording. In high school, I was fortunate to study percussion with the great Michael Bookspan. He spoke with me about how Muti truly challenged the Philly Orcheytsa in all rep. They were recording Bolero and he mentioned how hard he had to practice the snare drum solo because of how exotic and mesmerizing (slow) it was. I have LOVED that performance forever!
Dave, thanks for guiding me to the sexy Tilson Thomas/LSO recording. Wow! Fabulous sonics, perfect tempo for my taste, beautiful solo playing, and a Rock' Em Sock 'Em climax with the players going bonkers. Just fabulous!
I am so happy that you saved the best for last - the Muti/Philadelphia recording has always been very special to me. About 10 - 12 years ago we took a road trip to Florida to see the parents in our Mercedes sports car. After we were there for a couple of days, I took my Dad for a ride to hear the incredible sound system. Didn't tell him what I was going to play, but I knew he always enjoyed Bolero. He asked me to keep on driving because he wanted to hear it again. It IS an amazing recording!!
When I was about 14 years old I listened to Ravel's Bolero on my dad's old monophonic system with its General Electric 12 inch speaker so often that I wore the grooves out on the shellac 78 rpm record, and whoever the conductor and the orchestra were I couldn't tell you to save my soul. I am now 77 years old, and to quote 1 Corinthians 13:11 "when I became a man I put away childish things."
I have listened to a lot of Boleros over the last 75 years but the best was the last one I bought, Charles Munch and his Orchestre de Paris. This was about the last recording he made, 1968. The tension & slow build up is the best ever!.
So glad you mentioned MTT/LSO. This was one of my first cds I bought because it was cheap. It has sentimental value more than anything else, but after several other recordings after, it still stands as one of the best.
JoAnn Falletta conducted the Toledo Symphony in an all French program, including Bolero, in February. While they may not be one of the top tier orchestras, she got the required vigor out of them for the finale! It was a great time.
I so enjoyed this review, thank you. I have just listened to the Muti recording for the first time and, wow, what a wonderful experience! I'm very struck by how Ravel's slower tempo really brings out this piece as a passionate dance rather than a march which some faster recordings sound like. I can well understand why Ravel was so insistent that the piece be played at his tempo.
Oh Wowsers. What a video! What a piece of music. I checked my collection. I have 32 versions of this epic masterpiece! Wow just wow. Dave. What a video. The Muti is of course in the Muti box, which all of us on here bar none should have. Bravo maestro Hurwitz!
Arg! My absolute favorite is the Paray, granted faster than most, but absolutely electrifying! I have always thought that the Ansermet, despite the variable playing, was important to have because the conductor went to Ravel to ask him how to conduct it. I love the Bernstein, but despite the sonics, I think the NY Philharmonic is superb. Sonically, the Mehta is wonderful. Too many choices!
Thanks David. I took your recommendation and I searched you tube to get a taster. And I found the Muti performance. That is just astonishingly good! Like you said all those wonderful soloists. You Americans (I'm in the UK) do have some gems of orchestras...wow.... Everybody should hear it... thanks 🙏👍
I was lucky enough to hear Muti conduct Bolero with the Chicago Symphony when they visited London. It was fantastic. They played Prokofiev Symphony 3 in the first half and the encore was Forza del Destino overture so the roof was raised off the Festival Hall. They were on good form that night.
Since a lot of times the saxophone solos are an issue, I just want to highlight the Boulez recording as being superb in this area for both soprano and tenor. The other to hear if you haven't enjoyed the two saxophone solos in this work is Neeme Jaarvi with Detroit. At four and a half minutes in during that recording on Chandos you hear the tenor solo played by Donald Sinta, perhaps the pre-eminent American classical saxophonist. Definitely worth hearing in addition to all of these great choices!
I was waiting to see if you gave a nod to the Leibowitz recording made for Reader's Digest/RCA collection around 1960. It is very naturally recorded, and each soloist sounds like they are having fun. The ending is an overload, literally! The cymbal crashes, the tam-tam is just the one you described: small and very fast speaking, and the bass drum pins the meters. It is available here on RU-vid and is fun to give a listen to. One of the best? Maybe not, but it should be a narrow miss that will take only 16 minutes of your time.
I listened to the muti version.....yes excellent.magnificent sound recording, you can hear everything.....of course for this work we have the choice of versions.....curiously there is also pearls...munch in boston, at the beginning we hear an ambient noise coming from outside the symphony hall, and andré prévin on warner....one of the longest bolero ever recorded...and maazel, and the national orchestra of france, too fast for my taste....i knew the saxophonist who played in dutoit's version...gilles moisan, a flagship recording which would become the icon of the osm. ....and for those who want to think outside the box there is Tomita's version.....to die of laughter
Dear David. Thank you for the hard work you do. Before I start a new piece, I go to your channel and search for videos by the title of the piece. Thank you so much!
I love your comments on the orchestration, especially about the piccolo trumpet, which could come only from someone who knows the piece from inside the orchestra.
Back in the 90s, I listened to a radio broadcast of the Boléro with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, of all people. Took him 19'50, if my memory serves me right. Could never find that recording anywhere on disc.
Glad to see FINALLY my hometown band is mentioned first, the Cincinnati Symphony. They did French and Spanish repertoire under Lopez Cobos (RIP) so very well. I live in DC now (NSO ugh), but my chest sticks out with pride whenever I hear the CSO mentioned or in performance. And I'll listen to Bruckner everyday if I want to (just kidding). BTW The CSO attempted a Bruckner cycle with Telarc but they only recorded 5 symphonies I think. I think they are very well done, but who am I (except the original version of the 4th)?
Agree on the 4th. Really wish that they would have recorded the later version. And wish instead of the shalk edition of the 5th recorded in London, that they would’ve recorded in Cincy, though I haven’t any idea if the normal 5th was in Lopez-Cobos’ repertoire. Another Cincinnati performance in the Telarc cycle would’ve been great too. Really enjoyed -from what I can remember-his final performances as Isco director there.
the snare drummer in the Muti/Philly recording was Mickey Bookspan; some years later he told the story: as Muti was new to the orchestra, I had to know what tempo to be prepared for, so I went to him in advance..."Maestro, what tempo for your Bolero?" ...silence...thinking... then Muti responds: "...tempo sensuale". (right: hilarious, and, not helpful to Bookspan)
Before I watched this video, I was hoping that you would at least mention Skrowaczewski/Minnesota Orchestra which, yes, may have been the slowest issued recording up to that time. (After all, in Minneapolis, you need to do SOMETHING during the long winter nights!) I eagerly bought the box when it was issued in 1975, and then when I moved to Minneapolis in 1979 I was delighted to hear the Orchestra Hall acoustics, and marvel in how well Vox had captured them, particularly in QS (using a Realistic matrix decoder, of all things).
A plea for the version (obviously recorded in a single take) by Hermann Scherchen, 2) the so french version (les couleurs) by Roger Désormière with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and 3) the surprising version by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gunter Herbig (wich gave nice years to Toronto Symphony Orchestra).
Hey dave! Great review video, as always! I wil def listen to Muti's. I was surprised you did not mention Markevitch, any restrains with that recording??
My absolute favorite is a real sleeper from a really unexpected source as who could have thought that the most mind-blowing, propulsive performance had come from Sinopoli of all of the conductors with the Philharmonia Orchestra on DG. Simply tremendous.
I have some of his recordings and I love them. Such a shame the way he was denigrated! I would love to hear his Bolero and will look out for it! Thank you. Cheers from Australia.
Muti's makes most others seem like wham-bam-thank-ya-ma'am performances! I also love the crazy Freitas-Branco recording, which is even slower. If I remember correctly, the Rene Leibowitz recording also has the shouting at the end, like Abbado's.
I’m currently obsessively listening to Bolerie 😅 as I finally found the 2015 Radiolab podcast about Anne Adams and Maurice Ravel that I had listened to half of on a long-haul flight years ago. I’m a choreographer, not a musician, so I am trying to educate myself on the musical mechanics of this piece. It’s fascinating and I am learning a lot!!
I found the Muti on Qobuz as part of a compilation of his work with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. The performance I have on cd is Karajan on DG from 1995 it’s the one with Pictures At An Exhibition.
Hi Dave, Cheers for your thoughts. Always informative and funny. I have a few recording of Bolero, one interesting one is Dutoit and MSO. It has a fluffed note in the brass at 13:54 . Poor dude. I think they also missed the note entirely in the repetition immediately before the fluffed/split note.
Great review! Thanks. The Muti is available with multiple couplings on the Naxos Music Library app (NML). What about THE BEST Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture next? I don’t think you’ve done that one yet.
Many years ago, I heard on the radio a most interesting recording of Bolero where the solos were so free as to not even be in time with the underlying accompaniment. I did not catch who was doing it and would love to hear it again. Does anybody know this recording?
Dave, have you heard Zappa’s live 1988 version of Boléro (from the album The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life)? It’s pretty great and there are some humorous liberties taken as you might imagine. Another album from the same tour (Make A Jazz Noise Here) features excepts from “L’Histoire du Soldier” and Bartok’s Piano Concerto #3. These were all pieces he was fond of and it shows.
A couple I really like aside from the Muti version is the one by Klaus Tennstedt with the Philadelphia Orchestra and one by Paul Kletzki. Both can be found on RU-vid.
I have not heard the LP in years, but a recording of Ravel's "Boléro" that I always loved just about best of all was Charles Munch's Paris recording, made well before the more famous recording that Munch produced in Boston. The tempo is slow and relentless and, as I recall, rather close to Ravel's own conception. I do like Ravel's own recording a lot more than most listeners do. I have it in several forms, including on 78 r.p.m. discs on the Vox label.
Boy, do I have NO problems with Paray! But the really interesting contrast is between Muti and Celibidache, in that there's very little contrast! And on RU-vid at least , you get to watch C's hair un-Ravel 🙂 Oh, and I hear the final crash of the Tam-Tam on the Paray as well
Hi Dave, the contents of the Muti disc you've endorsed are in the big Warner box, though I'm not sure they follow the same coupling scheme as on the disc you've mentioned. Still, yet more of a reason to acquire the box!
@@DavesClassicalGuide Cheers Dave - the Muti box is one of the best of its kind. I really do feel that we are witnessing the death throes of physical product, especially in the realms of classical music, and certainly where the major companies are concerned. I somehow suspect that this is part of the reason why we are continually being fed these "complete" and comprehensive large boxes by the majors - it's as though they are deliberately providing us with the very last opportunity to acquire the back catalogue before the whole apparatus of physical product evaporates into thin air. What is more, the major companies are releasing fewer and fewer NEW classical recordings, and so the future doesn't look great. The situation doesn't seem to be quite so dire as far as the smaller companies are concerned, though sadly I don't think it will be too long before we'll all have to acquire our new domestic listening experiences through streaming, down-loading etc. This is why we, your listeners, appreciate so much the tremendous dedication and hard work you bring to your pleas for the continuation of physical product, and to remind the companies that there is an enthusiastic and eager buying public who still believe in this particular format.
I totally agree about the Boulez Ravel cycle being his best work as a conductor...although his Rite of Spring is right on the heels of it!!! Also, congrats on hitting the 30K subscribers mark...To celebrate, (and here's to the next 30K in half the time!), I think a music chat on composers who were also professional critics would be a fascinating talk from your modern day perspective. I mean, there's Berlioz, Schumann, Cui, Dukas, Wolf, Thomson, Brian, etc...the list could go on, but it would be fun to discuss how composers can bring unique insights and yet, by the nature of their preferred profession, they may not be the most objective of critic. Either way, keep the videos coming Dave, and thanks for bringing joy into my mornings!!!
A vote for one of the several Ormandy/Philadelphia stereo recordings. This one was once on the old CBS Odyssey line. Although not as a sonically atmospheric recording as some other it still packs a powerful wallop at the climax and also you can hear a perfectly judged tam tam thwack at the end. Not evident in his other recordings...
Something else to consider, upon reflection - Ravel decided on 4 different tempi for Bolero. The piano - rehearsal - score has a metronome marking of 76, the published version marking is 72, later he changed it to 66 and still later he suggested 17 minutes, a year and a half after it's Paris premiere - so, anything between 13 and a half minutes to 17 minutes, at a steady pace, would in fact work per the composers' wishes. And then, there was Charles Munch, who regarded the work as a piece about insanity - none of his commercial recordings quite captures " the crazy " as much as his New York Philharmonic performance from January of 1948 - unhinged and wacky. That's the performance for me !!!!
I have a few versions of this. Ozawa's and the Chicago/Martinon recording. Ozawa's is terrific! The Martinon is fast at 13:46 but well played. Herseth's piccolo trumpet is heard, but he was likely told to blend. I have the Solti Chicago version as well. He is much slower at 14:43 and it is again well played. This time, Herseth's piccolo is easily heard. The problem with a piccolo trumpet is it is rather easy to overblow it and have it sound shrieky to the point of unlistenable. That part is written for a D trumpet but I've never heard or seen any principal use one in this day and age.
IT's a good one-liner and it certainly is possible for an experienced orchestra to do that during the concert (I saw that too, Eschenbach and Orchestre de Paris, if my memory serves). But the drummer would not fine-tune, if I can say so, the balance between the instruments and guiding the crescendo. And that's the point, not playing together.
I didn't realize, until you mentioned it at the end, that Ravel's specified tempo turns out to be slower than we're used to hearing. I suppose that calls for special skill from the conductor and orchestra to maintain momentum. I will look for the Muti. I wonder if you might devote a video sometime to help listeners like myself to understand and experience the characteristic sounds of certain orchestras. I'm thinking in particular of the Czech orchestras, which you have frequently mentioned, pointing out the unique sound of their woodwinds. Given that these peculiarities are vanishing as orchestras become "internationalized," it's not such a straight-forward matter as simply choosing Czech recordings. I would love to sharpen my ears for these subtleties.
I was thinking more along the lines of recommending just a few particular recordings to compare and contrast. But I don't know what work even that would entail for you. Just a thought. @@DavesClassicalGuide
I agree and have long been wishing for a talk simply explaining what made certain orchestras (Czech or otherwise) so distinct, whether stylistic traditions, instrument manufacture or other factors. I don’t have to have samples. I’ll find them. What were the features of some of the most famous and unique orchestra’s sounds, such as the Czech Phil or the Suisse Romande? What were the eras more or less when they were that way and what are some recorded examples? Please Dave! It’s so fascinating.
In your review of the big Andre Previn box from Warner Classics, I think you mentioned that the timing of his recording of "Bolero" (with the LSO) was similar to the composer's own (second?) recording. I noticed that the Previn recording hadn't made the top 12 listed here. In your opinion, how does it rate alongside Muti's and Baudo's (on Supraphon)?
Muti! Interesting. It's soooo sloooow, though. I understand the metronome markings, etc., but Muti's just drags. The 14:30-15:30 seems to be the sweet spot. However, Muti's is very beautifully played & recorded. I sure wish I could hear the Rosenthal & Baudo, but they're nowhere to be found on the streaming services.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I just gave it another listen, & we'll just have to disagree. Here's a percussionist question: Why does the snare drum on Abbado's recording sound so different, especially at the beginning? Almost like there's no snares, or they're super tight. It has a hollow sound.
Yes, often the player only adds snares later. Or plays the drum with his fingers initially (I did it that way and it worked very well when you want a very soft dynamic--as long as you have no rolls or rapid figures). And Muti still doesn't drag. At all.
@@DavesClassicalGuide haha! Okay, noted. 😉 And thanks. I didn't even know playing with the fingers is a thing. Is it indicated in the score in any particular way? Since Abbado was a fussy micromanager, I'd think he'd want to be slavishly authentic. But I guess the orchestra shouting at the end isn't indicated (which I also like).
Dave covers everything really...I mean, like the Tchaikovsky random reviews he's been doing all week and even this video is standard rep...you just have to search his archive; he does excellent surveys on everything!!!
@@ericleiter6179 Oh, I’ve been following Dave’s channel from its inception and I’m well aware of the wide variety of content that he has covered over the past couple years. All I’m saying is that over the past month or so, there seems to have been a noticeable shift in his focus in favor of the standard repertoire. I miss the more exploratory videos along the lines of “15 Composers Who Deserve a Serious Comeback”, the musical prequels/sequels chats, etc.
@kylejohnson8877 I completely get where you're coming from...I like learning about the more neglected/fringe of the repertoire type composers too...and I miss quite a few of his certain series like 'How it's Done', or 'Abstract sounds concrete objects' or 'The world's most beautiful melodies', etc...but when you zoom out a bit, what's a month in terms of the big picture? I'm sure he will get back to what we prefer, he just keeps going and has to make it fun for himself and newbies as well...but, I'm also loving some of the new series he has started in the last month, like 'Unkillable Works' or adding the 'Choose one recording' to the Cancrizan series, etc...all we can do is turn on, tune in, and keep on listening!!!
