Orchestral works vol. 5

"It's [L'Enfant et les Sortilèges.] a performance of remarkable assurance, beautifully recorded with scarcely any extraneous stage noise, and every texture and instrumental detail perfectly placed and meticulously realised by the fabulous hand-picked Saito Kinen Orchestra ... Ravel's song cycle Shéhérazade, recorded at Matsumoto in 2009 with Susan Graham as the mezzo soloist, makes a suitably sumptuous pairing".

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"Mikko Franck's performance [of L'Enfant Prodigue] ... is vivid enough, but inevitably it's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges that makes the bigger impression. In this jewel-like work in which not a note is wasted, it's a huge advantage to have an entirely Francophone cast, and every word certainly matters here ... Franck ... certainly gets superb orchestral playing from the Radio France orchestra".

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"Vel fejler spillet i Ravels tre kvarter korte "L'enfant et les sortilèges" ikke noget. Men rollen som det meget fantasifulde barn skulle absolut synges af sopranen Magdalena Kozená alias fru Rattle - og dét virker hun ikke rigtig i stemning til ... Pladens version af "Min gåsemor" ligger derimod helt i top. Dyrk detaljerne, farverne, hele dybden. Faktisk fås den næppe bedre!".

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"Ravels anden og yderst sjældne opera "Barnet og dæmonerne" bliver spidset til skarpe pointer og kantet galskab i hænder og munde på Berlins bedste folk ... De medvirkende leverer helt igennem overbevisende præstationer i det sære setup, og man bliver ret automatisk fortaler for en snarlig opsætning her til lands".

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"Isabel Leonard's voice is really too richly feminine. The best singing comes from Anna Christy ... and from the very experienced Fouchecourt ... Not surprisingly in a concert performance of this very tricky score, not everything is in place [L'enfant] ... Susan Graham has absolutely the right voice for this music and knows it well. Her French is fine and I'm delighted she respects Ravel's carefully notated vocal slides (Sheherazade]".

"Stuttgart's players excel, whether in the sexy trombone-led absurdity of the foxtrot, or the pregnant stillness of the garden. The choral singing is shapely in 'Adieu, pastourelles!' and 'Il est bon, l'enfant' and the journey of Camille Poul's Child from fury to confusion, beguilement, fear and remorse is beautifully observed".

"Despite much beautiful singing and some georgeous playing, however, this newcomer falls short of Maazel's classic accout never mind Bour's historic recording".

"Den franske radios symfoniorkester med deres finske chefdirigent Mikko Franck har lavet en fin udgave med skarpt orkesterspil og et glimrende ensemble af sangere ... Ravels opera kobles med to ungdomsværker af Debussy ... hæderligt sunget, men så heller ikke mere".

"The performance of the Ravel is on a wholly superior level ... Chloé Briot is well contrasted with the excellent Nathalie Stutzmann as Maman and two other characters, while Sabine Devielhe as The Fire and François Piolino as Mr Arithmetic are first class. In the orchestra, every note is in place - no small achievement in this fiendishly difficult piece.".

"Maurice Ravel schuf mit seiner Fantaisie lyrique ... eine hinreissende Oper ... Mikko Franck gestaltet sie mit einem vorzüglichen solistenensemble ... Die Interpreten geben dem Stück wohl einen leichten, unangestrengten Ton, ohne es jedoch leichtgewichtig wirken zu lassen ... Debussys frühe Kantate L'Enfant Prodigue ... eingespielt ... hier mit grossem Engagement und Intesität ... auf welch hohem Niveau!".