Vincent d’Indy: Orchestral Works 5

“d'Indy is his own man, conjuring up fragrant atmosphere from his mountain theme and generating a good deal of healthy vigour in the finale. All this is potently communicated by the orchestral playing and by Louis Lortie's scintillating fluency in the piano obbligato.” --Gramophone Magazine, June 2013

“For me, the palm goes to the delightful and generally ignored Saugefleurie, where duty bows before inspiration. Throughout, the playing is warm and unfussy.” --BBC Music Magazine, August 2013 ****

“the mixture of post-Wagnerian chromaticism and refined orchestral sensuousness is typical of a style that left an indelible impression on French music for decades. The performances, from the Iceland Symphony under Rumon Gamba, are faultless. Louis Lortie is the restrained yet dexterous soloist in the Symphonie.” --The Guardian, 11th April 2013 ****

“Lortie is so sensitively attuned to a piano part whose sheer dexterity is partly offset only by its frequent self-effacement...Gamba yields very little to Andre Cluytens in terms of his identity with a work that is well deserving of revival.” --International Record Review, May 2013

Vincent d'Indy: Orchestral Works 4

“Rumon Gamba evidently has the measure of this elusive yet powerful work, encouraging a subtlety and finesse from the Iceland Symphony Orchestra...The spacious though detailed sound is arguably the best yet from this source” --International Record Review, March 2011

“Rumon Gamba plays the [Symphonie Italienne] straight, without fuss, and the results are excellent.” --BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 ****

“Certainly, the truly excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra is an ensemble of international standard; Rumon Gamba achieves some highly responsive playing from them, while the richly atmospheric Chandos recording is state-of-the-art.” ---Gramophone Magazine, May 2011

Vincent d’Indy: Orchestral Works 3

“Rumon Gamba...draws deeply sympathetic playing from his orchestra, leaving us to wish that d'Indy had always composed thus.” --BBC Music Magazine, May 2010 *****

“All four performances have striking spontaneity and the Chandos recording is very much in the demonstration bracket. If you are unfamiliar with d'Indy's music, this CD will make an admirable introduction to a very rewarding composer.” --Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

"Following their first two much-praised discs, Rumon Gamba and the Iceland Symphony further champion the lushly colourful and impressionistic orchestral music of Vincent d’Indy. The core of this programme is a clearly argued and well-paced performance of the composer’s Third Symphony. It’s a fascinating work that mixes straighforward militaristic passages with a high-Romantic, 20th century language that’s part Expressionist, part Impressionist. It’s framed by three delicious tone-poems." --BBC Music Magazine, May 2010

“… Vincent d’Indy wrote gorgeously expressive music that is scarcely played today. The Iceland SO and Rumon Gamba’s excellent advocacy reminds us that he was a sensual orchestral colourist, at once French and Teutonic in style. This volume  includes the erotic Istar, the eccentric but appealing Choral varie Op 55 with solo saxophone and the highly charged heroic Symphony No 3, quasi-militaristic and full of big “nobilmente” tunes…” “ Bizarrely addictive.--Classic FM Magazine, May 2010

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Vincent d’Indy: Orchestral Works 2

“…a vital, vividly scored and eventually stirring piece. When d'Indy escapes from his determination to build most of it from the same two themes, he comes up with moments of breathtaking poetry and strikingly personal harmonic colour. Rumon Gamba keeps it all on the move... The orchestra, bright in tone against a resonant background, could do with weightier strings but plays with precision and energy...” --BBC Music Magazine, June 2009 ****

“None of the three previous recordings of the symphony… survived very long in the catalogue, so Gamba's vibrant yet cogent interpretation plugs a glaring gap. …the playing of the Iceland SO combines commendable polish and contagious dedication, and Chandos's sound has both tangible presence and enticing glow.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2009

“Vincent d'Indy's Second Symphony, a substantial work written at the dawn of the 20th century, combines reasoned, Classical compositional principles with a strong Romantic impulse. Its performance here, well-controlled but malleable in phrasing and pace, is one of ravishing colour, capitalising on the music's fluid, succulent harmony and glowing orchestral palette.” The Telegraph, 7th April 2009 ****

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Vincent d’Indy: Orchestral Works 1

“The rich orchestration in all three works is superbly realised by the excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra unde Rumon Gamba and the state-of-the-art Chandos recording; definitely a key record of d'Indy's orchestral output. ” --Gramophone Magazine, June 2008

“Most record lovers will be drawn primarily by Jour d'été à la montagne. Rumon Gamba, eliciting controlled and delicate playing from the orchestra in the other two works, does so again here.” --BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 ****

“Three of d'Indy's most colourful works show him not only as an impressionist in a Debussian mould but also influenced by Wagner and folk music from his own culture. La forêt enchantée (1878) is described as a 'légende-symphonique' and is inspired by an epic ballad by Ludwig Uhland. D'Indy creates a mysteriously expectant opening atmosphere, then Knight Harald and his followers ride out vigorously. Female elves seduce his followers, but Harald loftily resists their enticements and gallops off to reach an enchanted spring, where the elves are waiting for him. This time he yields to their alluring invitation before slipping into a 'centuries-lasting' sleep.

By the time the masterly Jour d'été à la montagne was written some 30 years later, d'Indy's style had matured. While the Wagnerian sensuality remains, here the influences from Debussy and even Ravel are very potent: there's a daybreak with an orchestral chorus of birds. The sultry central movement, 'Après-midi sous les pins', includes lively folk dancing before the clouds arrive, with thunder in the distance. Twilight transforms the mood for 'Soir' and the work closes in nocturnal bliss.

D'Indy wrote Souvenirs almost immediately afterwards (in 1906) in memory of his wife (represented by a leitmotif, Bien-Aimée), recalling the couple's idyllic summers together and again evoking the countryside. This idée fixe is continually transformed before the music darkens and 12 harp harmonics set the time of Isabelle's death at midnight; the evocation ends in sad serene acceptance.

The rich orchestration in all three works is superbly realised by the excellent Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Rumon Gamba and the state-of-the-art Chandos recording; definitely a key record of d'Indy's orchestral output.” --Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

MP3 320 · 139 MB