Yan Pascal Tortelier, Iceland Symphony Orchestra – Gounod: Symphonies (2019)
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 61:14 minutes | Covers + PDF Booklet | 2,84 GB
or DSD64 2.0 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Covers + PDF Booklet | 2,43 GB
or FLAC Stereo (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Covers + PDF Booklet | 1,18 GB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound | Label: Chandos # CHSA 5231
After winning the Prix de Rome for his cantata Fernand in 1839 and spending two years in Rome, Gounod should have gone on to study in Germany, but he managed in 1842 to persuade the authorities that he should remain in Rome to work on a symphony. In 1843 he visited Mendelssohn who (while trying to dissuade him from wasting his time on Goethes Faust!) urged him to write another symphony. We do not know how much of the First Symphony Gounod had completed by then, but it is not surprising that Mendelssohn figures as one of the key influences on both symphonies. After performances of individual movements in 1855, premieres were given of the First Symphony on 4 March that year and of the Second Symphony on 13 February 1856. Yan Pascal Tortelier and his Iceland Symphony Orchestra demonstrate outstanding precision and musicality in these unjustly neglected works.
Charles Gounod is hardly known for his symphonies, but the two examples here were completed around the time of the St. Cecilia Mass, which made Gounod’s fame. You would be unlikely to identify the composer of these works in an information vacuum, however. Gounod had befriended both Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn; the latter introduced Gounod to Bach, and the former, before his death, encouraged Gounod’s symphonic efforts. There is a great deal of Mendelssohn in these two modest works, a bit of Schubert, perhaps, and in the Symphony No. 2 in E flat major a competently executed bit of Beethoven. The Symphony No. 1 in D major in turn inspired Bizet, Gounod’s student, to write the better-known Symphony in C major. The melodies of Gounod’s work are not quite in that league, but there’s a sense of fun in the music that’s very French despite its origins in German symphonic form. It’s this quality that veteran French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier understands and finds in the music, where it is sometimes a little submerged. He’s aided by the underrated Iceland Symphony Orchestra, for which these pieces are not part of the textbooks as they might be for French musicians. A delightful find for Gounod lovers.
Tracklist:
01. Symphony No.1 In D Major – Allegro molto
02. Symphony No.1 In D Major – Allegretto moderato
03. Symphony No.1 In D Major – Scherzo
04. Symphony No.1 In D Major – Finale. Adagio – Allegro vivace
05. Symphony No.2 In E Flat Major – I. Adagio – Allegro agitato
06. Symphony No.2 In E Flat Major – II. Larghetto (non troppo)
07. Symphony No.2 In E Flat Major – III. Scherzo
08. Symphony No.2 In E Flat Major – IV. Finale. Allegro, leggiero assai
Personnel:
Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Sigrún Eðvaldsdóttir – leader
Yan Pascal Tortelier – Conductor
Note:
Produced by Brian Pidgeon. Engineered by Jonathan Cooper.
Recorded on April 30 & May 2-4, 2018 at Eldborg, Harpa, Reykjavík, Iceland.
SACD ISO
https://xubster.com/9okjlr9av7sk/YanPascalT0rtelierIcelandS0G0un0d.Symph0nies2019SACDIS0.part1.rar.html
https://xubster.com/hhj1rdgtc68i/YanPascalT0rtelierIcelandS0G0un0d.Symph0nies2019SACDIS0.part2.rar.html
DSF
https://xubster.com/agd7xpy1jsd0/YanPascalT0rtelierIcelandS0G0un0d.Symph0nies2019DSD64Stere0.part1.rar.html
https://xubster.com/xwtf1bslq4sq/YanPascalT0rtelierIcelandS0G0un0d.Symph0nies2019DSD64Stere0.part2.rar.html
Hi-Res FLAC