PAUL DUKAS

This is the first time that these recordings have been made available at budget price.

There are several works on this pair of discs that are not available anywhere else.

These recordings continue to demonstrate Yan Pascal Tortelier’s mastery of the French orchestral repertoire.

Paul Dukas is almost entirely known for his popular tone poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This work is, of course, included in this release; however, these discs also offer several larger scale works, including his impressive Symphony in C major and the Overture Polyeucte as well as the delightful ballet La Péri. Three examples of his rarely performed but no less impressive piano music are performed powerfully by Margaret Fingerhut who received lustrous reviews on the original release.

The music of Dukas is highly colourful and atmospheric, demonstrating his somewhat eclectic inspirations, which included Wagner and Franck, as well as the beauty of classical form. There have been relatively few recordings of the Symphony in C major and it is not commonly performed outside France. ‘The rumbustious end to the first movement, with some superb brass and vigorous percussion, is a moment to be savoured’, wrote Gramophone. The rarely recorded Polyeucte overture is a powerful work in five sections. In the work of Dukas, the Orient was the most seductive foreign influence, as demonstrated in La Péri, his last major work, written for Diaghilev in 1912. Yan Pascal Tortelier is famous for his interpretations of French music and plays this music with idiomaticflair.

This bargain two-CD set, which includes the main orchestral and piano masterpieces of Dukas, is an ideal summation of the achievement of this wonderful composer.

"...An inexpensive and excellent survey of this fastidious composer’s output..."

The Pengiun Guide – 1000 Greatest Classical Recordings 2011-12

Margaret Fingerhut plays it all with an imperious technique and displays tremendous involvement throughout – a magnificent achievement, in fact.
Certainly Tortelier can more than hold his own even against such stiff competition bringing a welcome white-hot intensity to what came become in lesser hands rather turgid fare – as with the Franck D minor that clearly served Dukas as model.
I cannot praise Tortelier’s mastery here enough.


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