The Opera Comique in Paris has a long tradition of giving stylish performances dating back to the 18th century. Five imaginative and critically acclaimed productions are featured in this collection of French operatic masterpieces. Bizet's 'Carmen', which received it's premiere at the Opera Comique in 1875, is performed on period instruments conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Ambroise Thomas's 'Hamlet' features the stellar French baritone Stephane Degout in the title role. Messager exemplifies the spirit of La Belle epoch in 'Fortunio'; Gounod fuses Romanticism with the supernatural in 'La Nonne sanglante'; and the outstanding French soprano Sabine Devieilhe takes the lead role in Delibes's tragic tale of passion and loyalty, 'Lakme' - one of the jewels of the Opera Comique.

The Opera Comique in Paris has a long tradition of giving stylish performances dating back to the 18th century. Five imaginative and critically acclaimed productions are featured in this collection of French operatic masterpieces. Bizet's 'Carmen', which received it's premiere at the Opera Comique in 1875, is performed on period instruments conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Ambroise Thomas's 'Hamlet' features the stellar French baritone Stephane Degout in the title role. Messager exemplifies the spirit of La Belle epoch in 'Fortunio'; Gounod fuses Romanticism with the supernatural in 'La Nonne sanglante'; and the outstanding French soprano Sabine Devieilhe takes the lead role in Delibes's tragic tale of passion and loyalty, 'Lakme' - one of the jewels of the Opera Comique.

This 7-SACD collection includes recordings made by Brazilian-born conductor John Neschling of the orchestral works of Ottorino Respighi, alongside Puccini the best-known Italian composer of the first half of the twentieth century. Widely praised by the press, including BBC Music Magazine, which described them as ‘the finest-ever survey of the composer’s orchestral output undertaken by a single conductor’, these recordings reveal Respighi’s extraordinary range.

His transcriptions of works from the baroque period bear witness to his great musical refinement and are an example of the way in which people dared to adapt to current tastes at the beginning of the 20th century. His original compositions, whether symphonic poems, ballets or symphonic works, often call for a large orchestra, sometimes with the addition of numerous percussion instruments, piano, organ and even, in Pines of Rome, a phonograph, present a synthesis of the musical traditions of his native Italy and contemporary romantic, impressionist and neo-classical trends while remaining resolutely closed to modernist developments and atonality. Respighi’s lavish sound palette and the spirit that fills his scores were to find an echo in Hollywood film music, and John Williams considers him to be one of his most important influences.

Past praise of the previously released recordings included in this set:

Respighi: The Birds; Ancient Airs & Dances

These performances are uncommonly airy. Much of this music is suffused with an autumnal melancholy, and Neschling and his orchestra capture that very well.

-- Fanfare

Respighi: Metamorphoseon, etc.

All of the performances here are expert, but conductor John Neschling deserves particular credit for keeping things movement purposefully forward in the first two long, and mostly slowish, movements of the Belkis suite. The same work’s vulgar (let’s not kid ourselves) concluding Danza orgiastica also sounds more musical than usual–less like a back-alley gang bang–but with no loss of energy. The Liège orchestra plays with great bravura, and BIS’s SACD sonics, typically, are just terrific. In short, a very worthy entry in this ongoing series.

-- ClassicsToday.com

Respighi: Roman Trilogy / Neschling, Sao Paulo Symphony

The São Paulo Symphony Orchestra is a superb ensemble by any standards, and displays their virtuosity in the three Respighi symphonic poems.

-- SA-CD.net

Also available from John Neschling and the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège ijn their Respighi series on BIS: Sinfonia Drammatica & Belfagor Overture; Metamorphoseon; Impressioni brasiliane & La boutique fantasque.

This is a wonderful program, both for the performances and for the intelligent overview it gives of Respighi’s art generally. It begins with a piece for chamber orchestra, continues with an intimate work for voice and string quartet, and concludes with one of the composer’s splashiest orchestral blockbusters. The progression is logical, and makes an excellent hour-plus of pleasurable listening. It’s also sensationally well engineered.

In the Botticelli pictures, Neschling adopts leisurely (but never droopy) tempos that allow every detail of Respighi’s imaginative scoring to register. In The Birth of Venus, you can easily imagine how the violins’ ostinato figures actually trace the delicate peaks of the waves in Botticelli’s painting. It’s lovely and consistently ear-catching. Il Tramonto (The Sunset), after a poem by Shelley, showcases the art of Anna Caterina Antonacci. Best known for her Monteverdi recordings, she’s a fine singing actress. Although voice tends to spread under pressure, her diction and way with the text is absolutely riveting, and Neschling paces the piece perfectly (about sixteen and a half minutes).

All of which brings us to Church Windows, still something of a rarity–in concert at least. If this performance doesn’t quite match the classic Ormandy/Philadelphia version in the blazing second movement (Saint Michael Archangel), it comes close enough as makes no difference, and it’s magnificently sustained and really powerfully recorded. The organ/orchestra balances in the last movement are just about perfect, while the bass frequencies in the closing pages are crushing. In sum, if you’re into this wonderfully colorful and entertaining music, don’t hesitate for a minute.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)