Orchestral

Images; Jeux; La plus que lente San Francisco Symphony/

Michael Tilson Thomas

San Francisco Symphony SFS 0069 (hybrid CD/SACD) 60:21 mins

This is a delicious triptych of Debussy’s mature orchestral works, all written in the couple of years before the start of the First World War. Michael Tilson Thomas has a long and illustrious pedigree in Debussy, and it shows in the control and care taken over nuances of texture while keeping sight of the whole – no mean feat in these exceptionally challenging works. No wonder that, while almost always appearing complete on disc, the orchestral Images are often heard as isolated movements in the concert hall. In Tilson Thomas’s hands, each interlocking phrase and brush of colour can be heard emerging from the San Francisco Symphony, aided by the detailed, yet natural surround sound. The opening of Iberia cracks into life with stunning immediacy, the strings and woodwind waft dreamily in ‘Les parfums de la nuit’, and everything bursts into glorious, dazzling life in ‘Rondes de printemps’.

Occasionally speeds are just a shade on the steady side, resulting in a substantial gear change to ensure the end of Iberia is suitably rousing. Tilson Thomas describes Jeux in the booklet as an ‘X-rated dance’, so it is a pity the strings are not more teasing in their decoration of the ethereal woodwind chords near the opening, and the general movement could be more lithe. Nonetheless, there is some wonderful characterisation, and each moment counts in a work that seems to end all too soon. La plus que lente, a personal favourite of Debussy’s, provides a charmingly insouciant conclusion to an enjoyable disc. Christopher Dingle