As the title of this album suggests, the repertoire is heavily weighted toward the French, and the one exception, a piece by an all-but-unknown British-Australian composer, has a strongly Gallic sensibility. All but two of the selections are rarities, and there are two works that have never been recorded before. Almost half of the album is devoted to two large works by Jean-Michel Damase, born in 1928. Damase's music is staunchly conservative, unabashedly romantic, and rhapsodically lyrical. At its perkiest, it has a tart ...
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As the title of this album suggests, the repertoire is heavily weighted toward the French, and the one exception, a piece by an all-but-unknown British-Australian composer, has a strongly Gallic sensibility. All but two of the selections are rarities, and there are two works that have never been recorded before. Almost half of the album is devoted to two large works by Jean-Michel Damase, born in 1928. Damase's music is staunchly conservative, unabashedly romantic, and rhapsodically lyrical. At its perkiest, it has a tart jauntiness reminiscent of Prokofiev, but it's most notable for expansive, surging melodies and lush harmonies that are characteristic of big, emotionally charged mid-century film scores. His music is not simplistic, though, and his orchestration is inventive and colorful. The other large work is Charles Koechlin's rarely heard, but attractive Poème for horn and orchestra. Dukas' Villanelle and Saint-Saëns' Morceau de Concert are staples of the horn repertoire, but G.W.L....
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