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Mercury Living Presence Boxed Set CD29 van55
This wonderful disc, a collection of Chabrier's best orchestral pieces plus Albert Roussel's Suite in F, is one of the best ever recorded by the Mercury label team. What we have here are justly famous performances recorded in a Golden Age where conductors like Paul Paray (1886-1979) and his Detroit Symphony Orchestra players could bring to the audience the best of the score they had in front of them. The highlight of the disc is, of course, España, brilliantly interpreted and recorded. Some people say that Sir Thomas Beecham's 1939 recording of this piece is unsurpassable, but I doubt. Paray's recording for Mercury is even better because of the first-rate stereo sound. The Suite Pastorale, the Fête Polonaise and the other pieces of the discs are also delightful accounts. By the way, Paul Paray was French (born in the fishing town of Le Tréport), not Canadian, as you may think after reading some reviews of Paray's records in this site. To summarize: a marvelous disc which was awarded a Diapason d'Or and a CHOC, awards from French magazines Diapason and Le Monde de la Musique