Chausson: Symphony in B-flat Major
Paul Paray / Detroit Symphony (Eloquence)
(scroll down for English review)
Eloquence套裝的「魔掌」逐漸伸到Mercury的錄音，最近有兩盒一共45CD的帕雷和底特律交響樂團的錄音。30年前，Mercury舊錄音翻出CD最受歡迎之時，帕雷的錄音也出了很多張，但總是不及杜拉提的，那麼受香港評論人或買家歡迎。今天的巨型套裝，我最欣賞是把黑膠一一對照的翻到CD，不用再把一張半或兩張黑膠擠到一張CD，搞到亂七八糟。
我當然不會聽完全套，隨時五分一或十分一都不會聽到，我有兩種目的，第一個是聽被忽略的曲目，尤其是法國曲目。第二個是較次要的，看看有沒有現在已不會採用的演奏風格。
首先聽了兩次這張蕭頌《降B大調交響曲》，蕭頌接近是「一曲」作曲家，說的是寫給小提琴的《詩曲》。這首交響曲說完全沒人灌錄又不是，要找也有一些，其中一個是和法朗克《D小調交響曲》併在一張CD，蕭頌既拜法朗克為師，這曲交響曲也吸收了法朗克那首的寫法，包括三樂章結構，也只是遲法朗克兩年創作。
正因為是一張黑膠對一張CD，可以單獨聽這首蕭頌交響曲，毋須和法朗克比較。我覺得此曲雖然沒有法朗克那麼磅礡，但優點正是點到即止，各個主題明朗爽快，不說廢話。半年前聽過不少法國作曲家，例如聖桑、古諾或Farrenc較少演奏的交響曲，比起蕭頌早一代的他們難免要以舒伯特及孟德爾遜為參考對象，這首蕭頌交響曲，我認為非但沒有德國影響，假如不說出來，就連法朗克的影響都未必聽得到。柏雷的速度比其他錄音快一成有多，但我認為正好保存了蕭頌的前進活力，遠離和法朗克的聯想。
Eloquence did it again: Paul Paray’s illustrious Mercury recordings with the Detroit Symphony were reissued on two box-sets, with a total of 45 CDs. Of course I won’t go through all of them, not even a fifth, because I have two goals in mind. The major one is to look for obscure, especially French repertoire that are passed over nowadays. The minor goal is to detect performance practice no longer adhered to nowadays, if any.
The first disc I picked was this Chausson Symphony. We hardly see this symphony played or recorded by front-rank conductors but there are a handful of recordings. One of them coupled it with the Franck Symphony on one CD. What I like with the mega box-sets nowadays is that they no longer attempt to fill up every CD, choosing instead to replicate the LP contents exactly to the same number of CDs.
Therefore we can appreciate this Chausson Symphony on its own merits, without comparing it to the beloved Franck which served as an example to Chausson, who was also Franck’s student. Chausson never sought to imitate the epic qualities of his teacher’s symphony. The themes were economically constructed and never overstayed their welcome. Unlike his predecessors Saint-Saëns, Gounod or Farrenc, who had to find German models for their symphonies, Chausson seemed to be following his own path, the similarities with Franck are hardly noticeable. Also, Paray’s swift tempi, almost 10% faster than most other recordings, also contributed to a direct rendering of this Chausson masterpiece without drawing too much attention with his teacher’s opus.