Search - Georges Bizet, Janos Sandor, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra :: Passion: Carmen Suite/L'Arlesienne Suite - Bizet

Janus-faced!

William Larson | Selma, AL USA | 06/16/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The performances of the "L'Arlesienne Suites" are exciting, sonorous and deserving of high praise. The performances of the "Carmen Suites" seem to come from another universe altogether! Interpretively there is little wrong with Sandor's pleasant, if cautious, accounts, but the orchestra appears to have been reduced in size to something like a small theater-pit band! Maybe the Budapest Philharmonic was using decreased forces for both recordings and because "L'Arlesienne" was originally composed for a small ensemble it ended up sounded fuller? But when I compare Sandor's performances with Stokowski or Batiz I notice little difference in the orchestra sound with "L'Arlesienne" while there is a dramatic change in the "Carmen" Suites! Go figure! (There are no notes, as per usual with the "Passion" series, so no help there.)

Oh well, I guess you have to take the good with the bad, though it's hard to give a strong recommendation to this "L'Arlesienne" Suites, as fine as it is, when the coupling is so disappointing. I averaged out the star-rating (4 stars/2 stars - you can figure out which is which) and give this release a passable 3 stars."