Anima Eterna Brugge, Jos Van Immerseel - Ravel, Mussorgsky: Symphonic Works (2013) CD-Rip

Whatever recordings you may have of these works, this disc is a must, balancing opulence against clarity in the orchestral sound and respecting the diamond-hard construction on which Ravel lavished so many sleepless nights. --BBC Music Magazine

Two core classics of the repertoire are given a fresh makeover thanks to the creative archaeology of the Belgian ensemble Anima Eterna. Established by Jos van Immerseel in 1987, Anima Eterna specialises in playing on instruments appropriate to the music in question and of a type the composers might have had in mind.Anima Eterna and Immerseel have a wide remit, from Bach to Brahms and now to Ravel in the shape of his Ma Mère l oye suite and his 1922 orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.So,what makes this different from other recordings? First,from the very start of the Pavane de la belle au bois dormant in the Mother Goose suite you notice a velvety smoothness to the flute timbre, a mellowness in the clarinet, a feather bed of string sonority. This does not imply a lack of clarity or focus but,rather,an atmosphere of sound maybe the one that Ravel knew that cossets the music and lends it an unusual,soft glow.The exoticism of Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes is delicately etched in, and there is a beguiling warmth to Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête and Le jardin féerique.With the principles of interpretation and performance laid out in Ma Mère l oye, Anima Eterna applies them to the much-recorded Ravel orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures. The trumpet at the start and the brass ensemble that follows in the initial Promenade possess a timbre that is supple rather than strident, while still suggestive of the slightly awkward gait that Mussorgsky's changing time signatures imply.One consistently attractive feature of the suite is that Immerseel does not caricature the images that Mussorgsky evokes through his music and Ravel through his scoring. By sensitively deploying Anima Eterna's quality of sound, and by shaping the music with such pertinent phrasing, detail of instrumental colour and astute shading of dynamics, he throws new lights on some familiar pictures.