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Musical Discussions
Topic: Koussevitsky and La Mer

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Posted by drdna on 10-08-2008
I recently heard Koussevitsky's interpretation of Debussy's La Mer as performed by the Boston Symphony, and I found it to be delightful, very fluid and pregnant with passion. Does anyone else have an opinion about this performance or have another preferred version? Adrian
Posted by Romy the Cat on 10-08-2008
Interesting timing for this question: just today the Radio of Amsterdam broadcasted their version of La Mer and had some thoughts about it, primary in audio contexts….
The Debussy’s La Mer is one of the “lucky” pleases of music and it is well performed, popular and many versions are available. If you like what Koussevitsky did then you need to try his follower - Munch with BSO. The Munch’s La Mer is one of those happy combinations of “right time performance”. Boulez with Cleveland did also phenomenal La Mer, do no miss their Daphnis Et Chloé. BTW, the Koussevitsky’s Daphnis Et Chloé think is better than the Koussevitsky’s La Mer….

BTW, it is very useful to hear a good play of La Mer live as the work has a lot those silky micro-waves that create that amassing breathing dynamic texture. Unfortunately many of today’s broadcasters use automatic gains control on microphones that wipes out those waves. The lazy dudes do not want to ride gain manually….

The Cat

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