La Mer

[Larry Kart]

Having recently acquired two new (to me) recordings of "La Mer" -- Boulez (Cleveland, DGG) and Ormandy (Philadelphia, Sony), I've discovered to my amazement that I have ten others: Bernstein (NYP, Sony), Boulez (Philharmonia, Sony), Bour (SWF, Astree), Tilson-Thomas (Philharmonia, Sony), Silvestri (PCO, Disky), Haitink (Concertgebouw, Phillips), Inghelbrecht (Orchestre National, Naive), Giulini, Los Angeles, DGG), Desormiere (Czech Phil, Supraphon), and Maazel (Vienna Phil. RCA). Trying to sort through all these (I've also heard but don't own Reiner, Cantelli, and Toscanini) and concentrating on on the first movement, I've reached some temporary conclusions thst were both expected (Inghelbrecht is terrific, elemental) and unanticipated, as least by me (e.g. Bernstein is very good -- highly characterized at times, as one might expect, but his bright ideas are almost all illuminating; Ormandy also is quite good, not at all stodgy and over-rich; the DGG Boulez is constipated almost beyond belief).

Ruled out at this point, in addition to DGG Boulez, are Giulini (half asleep), Tilson-Thomas (nothing awful, nothing special), and Silvestri (very turgid sound). Haitink I can't make up my mind about -- at times I hear a remarkable rhythmic fluidity, at other times a lack of color. Maazel gets some remarkable moment-to-moment playing from the VPO, but their sound is not right for Debussy, and Maazel's interpretation is very in your face. The fabled Boulez New Philharmonia doesn't seem that magical or revelatory this time. Bour is awfully swift and rather dour (no rhyme intended). Desormiere I haven't returned to yet, but Sviatoslav Richter once said that it was the best recording of any work he'd ever heard.

At least one textual or conductorial emphasis question -- when, after a longish pause, the great sweeping massed cello passage arrives in movement one (at about the 5:20 mark on most recordings), Bernstein backs up the figure with a striking kettle drum rumble, a carry over from the bold [at least in Bernstein's recording] kettle drum rumbles that accompany the immediately preceding orchestral crescendos. Haven't gone back to every "La Mer" I have to be sure, but the only other recordingof the ones I've checked so far where one can hear any drum rumbles behind the cellos (and I mean any) is Haitink's, and his kettle drum or drums is/are a fair bit more discreet that Lennie's (which are probably spotlighted by the engineer -- there seems to be a good deal of spotlighting on his recording in general, although for sound musical reasons IMO). But is there, I wonder, a textual issue here? Two versions of the score, one with that drum rumble behind the cellos, the other without? If so, all I can say is that the drum rumble behind the cellos sounds great to me.

P.S. What a piece of music!

[Teasing the Korean]

La Mer is an absolute favorite of mine. My Dad had it on LP - forget which version - and as a teenager it was the first classical LP I bought. Being into jazz, the impressionists were the perfect gateway into classical.

I have several recordings, most on LP, a few on CD. Most of the latter are at work right now so I can't compare.

I did quickly listen to Ormandy, and that passage comes in significantly earlier than 5:20. I do hear the pizzicato bass hit after that cello passage starts, but it is hard to tell what the tympani is doing, if anything, with those low basses. i have not looked at the score. If the tympani is playing quietly, perhaps it is just an issue of miking and balance in different recordings.

Incidentally, that cello passage, with the open harmonies, is for me one of the test passages when comparing different performances. I have heard several recordings with somewhat ragged playing during that passage, along with some tuning/pitch issues.

[Larry Kart]

La Mer is an absolute favorite of mine. My Dad had it on LP - forget which version - and as a teenager it was the first classical LP I bought. Being into jazz, the impressionists were the perfect gateway into classical.

I have several recordings, most on LP, a few on CD. Most of the latter are at work right now so I can't compare.

I did quickly listen to Ormandy, and that passage comes in significantly earlier than 5:20. I do hear the pizzicato bass hit after that cello passage starts, but it is hard to tell what the tympani is doing, if anything, with those low basses. i have not looked at the score. If the tympani is playing quietly, perhaps it is just an issue of miking and balance in different recordings.

Incidentally, that cello passage, with the open harmonies, is for me one of the test passages when comparing different performances. I have heard several recordings with somewhat ragged playing during that passage, along with some tuning/pitch issues.

Here's the Bernstein. The passage I'm thinking of is at about 5:02:

Here's Haitink; it's about at 4:27:

[Larry Kart]

Here's Boulez Philharmonia; it's at about 4:46, and there's almost nothing but the cellos:

Inghelbrecht, about 4:50; the drums are there! And what a performance!

[Peter Friedman]

This thread has grabbed my interest. When I return home from vacation I will folllow up with listening to La Mer. Not sure what version I have, if any?

[A Lark Ascending]

Wonderful piece of music. Along with Delius and Sibelius, created an image of what I wanted 'classical' music to sound like - liquid, ever moving and with ideas rarely returning without being transformed in some substantial way.

I started with a 60s Karajan version (did 3 years for that) but happily settled on a Haitink 80s version.

This is interesting if not vital:

As well as her own piece, Sally Beamish arranges La Mer for piano trio.

When you're listening, always remember that this was what Debussy had in mind as he completed it in the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne:

I can recommend the doughnuts in the cafe 50 yards to the left.

Edited May 27, 2015 by A Lark Ascending

[soulpope]

An excellent reading of "La Mer" can be found (nowadays) on the Supraphon 3CD set "Jean Fournet in Prague" - recorded in the mid sixties with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

PS the set comes recommended overall, as it features inter alias equally impressive performances of "Iberia", "Rondes de printemps", "Nocturnes for Orchestra" and more from Franck and de Falla ....

Edited May 27, 2015 by soulpope

[sidewinder]

When you're listening, always remember that this was what Debussy had in mind as he completed it in the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne:

Lobster faced ice cream eaters in deck chairs with hankies on heads and wives called Petunia?

[Teasing the Korean]

Here's Boulez Philharmonia; it's at about 4:46, and there's almost nothing but the cellos:

Inghelbrecht, about 4:50; the drums are there! And what a performance!

Yes, that is the passage I am discussing. I think it comes down to performance, dynamics, and miking. The balance on the Inghelbrecht is close to what I hear on the Ormandy. Inghelbrecht takes that part pretty fast, in comparison to other versions I've heard.

[papsrus]

As an aside, this was one of the pieces Muti and the CSO performed during my visit to Carnegie Hall earlier this year, sandwiched between Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage overture and Scriabin's Third Symphony (the highlight of the evening, for me).

I recall the entire concert as being excellent.

Here's a link to a recording of the concert. It begins with the Mendelssohn -- not a long piece -- before La Mer.

[Chuck Nessa]

No mention of Munch Monteux or Martinon?

Edited May 27, 2015 by Chuck Nessa

[JSngry]

Lobster faced ice cream eaters in deck chairs with hankies on heads and wives called Petunia?

The blimp, Frank, the blimp!

[mikeweil]

Yes, Martinon is great, and a box with all of his Debussy and Ravel recordings was reissued at very low prices.

Besides him I strongly recommend this orchestra which I had the pleasure to hear perform last year:

[Teasing the Korean]

Fritz Reiner does the second tympani hit.

Paul Paray only does the first one, unless the second was so quiet it is buried.

For whatever that is worth.

[mjzee]

Toscanini (1942 or 1953) does not do the second tympani hit. Munch 1956 does do it, but in the background.

[sidewinder]

Lobster faced ice cream eaters in deck chairs with hankies on heads and wives called Petunia?

The blimp, Frank, the blimp!

Edited May 28, 2015 by sidewinder

[Teasing the Korean]

Debussy revised La Mer in 1909, and apparently the revisions are subtle. (Trying to find more detail.)

So this may provide a clue.

[Larry Kart]

About Munch, Monteux, and Martinon, I'm in the market. Sadly, my Desormiere LP is in unplayable shape, but it was a Parliament pressing to begin with, so what do you expect? Hey -- I see it's available on a two-CD set (with other vintage Debussy recordings) on Amazon for a mere $120.

Teasing the Korean -- I'm eager to hear what you're able to find out. I may have some sources too.

[alankin]

http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Ravel-Orchestral-Works-Claude/dp/B008DK3Q96

[Teasing the Korean]

Teasing the Korean -- I'm eager to hear what you're able to find out. I may have some sources too.

A good friend of mine is a music librarian. She indicates that the main revisions were subtle, and mainly concerned a brass fanfare someplace. But, that percussion change could have occurred also, I suppose.

[mjzee]

About Munch, Monteux, and Martinon, I'm in the market. Sadly, my Desormiere LP is in unplayable shape, but it was a Parliament pressing to begin with, so what do you expect? Hey -- I see it's available on a two-CD set (with other vintage Debussy recordings) on Amazon for a mere $120.

Teasing the Korean -- I'm eager to hear what you're able to find out. I may have some sources too.

The Munch is included in the first Living Stereo box.

[jazzbo]

http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Ravel-Orchestral-Works-Claude/dp/B008DK3Q96

Great set.

I love Debussy. Such wonderful music.

[Larry Kart]

'Beginning with La mer, Debussy created a new formal concept which one could call open form, which would find its fullest expression in Jeux and the last works: a developmental process in which the very notions of exposition and development coexist in an uninterrupted burst, which allows a work to be self-propelled, so to speak, without relying on any pre-established model.

'Such a conception of a work of art obviously strikes at the decayed state of traditional analysis. Indeed in La mer, musical technique is reinvented, not in the details of the language, but in the very concept of musical organization, and sonorous becoming… In it, music becomes a mysterious world which, to the extent that it evolves, it contrives in itself and destroys itself.'

— Jean Barraque

Hey -- I knew there was a reason I like La mer so much.

[Chuck Nessa]

About Munch, Monteux, and Martinon, I'm in the market. Sadly, my Desormiere LP is in unplayable shape, but it was a Parliament pressing to begin with, so what do you expect? Hey -- I see it's available on a two-CD set (with other vintage Debussy recordings) on Amazon for a mere $120.

Teasing the Korean -- I'm eager to hear what you're able to find out. I may have some sources too.

The Munch is included in the first Living Stereo box.

Easier to get here: http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Mer-Images-Nocturnes-C/dp/B0001TSWLO/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1432854497&sr=1-3&keywords=munch+debussy

[Larry Kart]

Easier to get here: http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Mer-Images-Nocturnes-C/dp/B0001TSWLO/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1432854497&sr=1-3&keywords=munch+debussy

That's the one I just ordered.