Koechlin | The Seven Stars Symphony · Ballade pour piano et orchestre

Very poetic character sketches as filtered through the mythologizing atmosphere of a nostalgic aural dream.

Recorded in 1982, the fact that [this album is] reentering the catalog suggests a select appeal which makes competition unlikely in the foreseeable future, thus [it enters] the Hall of Fame, if not - quite - by default (these are strong performances in better than average sound), less as outstanding sonic or interpretive artifacts and a great deal more on the strength of their artistic and musical import.

As Paul Snook took pains to note of The Seven Stars Symphony (in Fanfare 7:3) when this recording surfaced on vinyl, the provocative title "arouse[s] superficial and irrelevant expectations in the unprepared listener which are sure to be disappointed. This is not a set of slick and meretricious symphonic tableaux à la Ferde Grófé but a leisurely paced succession of unrelated miniature tone poems, constituting a suite of very subjective, very poetic, and very elusive character-sketches, or, more accurately, meditations, on the screen imagery of vedettes such as Fairbanks, Sr., Garbo, Dietrich, and Jannings as filtered through the allusively mythologizing atmosphere of a nostalgic aural dream." Got that? Well get it: he's on the money. Oddly, the compact disc has been processed from analog masters—the exemplary vinyl issue was digital: prominent tape hiss in the Ballade has been reduced but hardly banished from the symphony. 

Despite that, detail and timbrai play are more keenly served on silver, as is one's wish to return again to certain oddments, moments, and entire movements until this miragelike play of tone, texture, and color has been savored and assimilated. -- Fanfare

MP3 HQ · 103 MB