Simon Rattle recorded three of these arrangements, drearily, but these performances are far more colorful and appealing. Matthews' orchestrations have many fine qualities, and a few problems. He tends to overuse the harp, which makes a poor substitute for the original piano figuration, particularly in an orchestral context, and he's positively allergic to the upper woodwinds, a most uncharacteristic decision. The result places the timbral emphasis on strings, harp, soft brass (usually in sustained chords), and percussion, and the result is more blurry than the piano originals, a sound that's almost too "impressionistic".

This means that Matthews is best at the most impressionistic pieces: the two "wind" preludes, Ondine, Fireworks, and anything involving moonlight, night, and so forth. He catches the grotesque humor of General Lavine very well, and the crepuscular, haunting sounds of Dead Leaves (the contrabassoon is the one wind instrument he favors). Puck's Dance, though, is anything but puckish, and The Engulfed Cathedral is surprisingly tacky, with too many bells and not enough majesty. The Girl with the Flaxen Hair sounds more like the Adagietto of Mahler's Fifth (think: strings and harp).

Despite these occasional reservations, which will necessarily be a matter of personal taste, the scoring (idiomatic or not) is always sensitive, tasteful, and carefully thought out. Matthews includes as an encore a piece of his own: Monsieur Croche, a tribute to Debussy that fits very nicely with the preludes. As already suggested, the performances are bold and colorful, and wonderfully played, complemented by first-rate engineering. You may not agree with all of Matthews' decisions, but then that's part of the fun, isn't it? Strongly recommended.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

The Hallé completes its highly regarded Ring cycle, with the live recording of its acclaimed Bridgewater Hall performance under Sir Mark Elder. “Roaring jubilation and radiant beauty from Elder and the Halle…. Elder is a superb Wagnerian, acutely conscious of the complex relationship between tempo and pace, and immaculate in his judgment both of the span of each act and the ebb and flow of detail within it. Thrilling climaxes alternated with moments of astonishing beauty and quiet, almost exquisite terror.” (The Guardian on the Halle’s performance of Siegfried) The third element of Wagner’s Ring cycle contains humor, drama and a concluding ecstasy as the eponymous hero meets his heroine Brünnhilde, setting up the explosive finale of the concluding opera. With enormous orchestral forces and dramatic use of leitmotiv themes the music portrays the full gamut of emotions and provides a perfect vehicle to display the heights of the Hallé’s powers under Elder. This production was recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, capturing all the drama of the acclaimed live performance.

Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé present the completion of their Sibelius Symphonies Cycle with inspiring performances of two of his most personal and characteristic works, both regarded as indispensable to an understanding of the composer. Sibelius began his Symphony No.4 at a time of personal crisis and the resulting work, noted for its depth of expression and intellectual originality, contains some of the darkest and most unsettling music he ever wrote. It is a piece of marked originality and striking imaginative power, captured to great effect in this recording. In contrast, the elusive Symphony No.6, has been described as being full of music that “seems to be almost constantly singing”. The orchestration is particularly haunting; throughout, the string section in particular captivates the listener, in one of the most beautiful and original pieces of music Sibelius wrote.

The Hallé announces the latest release in their series of works by Vaughan Williams, with two landmark pieces which are pinnacles of the composer’s output. Composed between 1901 and 1904, the Songs of Travel, settings of Robert Louis Stevenson for voice and piano (some orchestrated by the composer and some by composer and arranger Roy Douglas), proved a significant landmark in the emergence of Vaughan Willams’s personal voice. The work reflects the composer’s interest in folk song and is characterized by highly evocative orchestrations, ardent melodic lines, wide ranging expressions of emotion from joy to melancholy and highly effective word setting. Winner of the Lieder Prize at the 1991 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Neal Davies has sung with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and opera companies and received much critical praise for performances in concert, on stage and in recordings. Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ‘masque for dancing’, Job, is one of his supreme achievements and was considered by Gustav Holst to be a masterpiece. Scored for large orchestra, the work was written between 1927 and 1930 and shows the composer’s imagination at its most vivid. Inspired by William Blake’s dramatic engravings, interpreting a Biblical narrative which examines human suffering in relation to a deity of justice, Vaughan Williams deploys traditional folk dances as a means of creating an idiomatic English dance style.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

The Hallé and Sir Mark Elder follow their recent highly acclaimed Debussy Nocturnes album, with a stunning orchestral collection including a world premiere recording. Debussy took seven years to produce Images, following the success of La mer, and the resulting work, which was hailed by Ravel, displays the composer’s mastery in varied material which is at times strident, eschewing any hint of ‘Impressionism’ (a term he disliked), lush and evoking feelings of loss and alienation. Pierre Boulez claimed that “modern music was awoken” by Debussy’s response to Mallarmé’s poem L’après-midid’un faune and the work, with its sumptuous opening flute line, certainly established the composer’s credentials and has rightly become a cornerstone of orchestral repertoire. The album features a world premiere recording of Colin Matthew’s orchestration of Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut, from the 2nd Book of Images for piano. This arrangement follows Matthews’ universally acclaimed orchestrations of the Debussy Préludes and of Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon featured in the recent Nocturnes release.