Roger Désormière is perhaps best known among record collectors as the conductor of the classic 1941 Debussy Pélleas et Mélisande, but Testament’s series of reissues of his early 1950s Deccas should further enhance his reputation. This release of French ballet music plays to his strengths, since he conducted Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company in the late 1920s, and ballet productions at the Paris Opera in the 1940s. His repertoire though, was extremely wide, ranging from the French Baroque to his modernist contemporaries, leading the French premieres of works by Bartók, Messaien, Dallapiccola, and Boulez, among many others.
Poulenc’s Les Biches dates from 1924, and Désormière makes this compound of wit and charm irresistible. His version of the Suite includes one number, the Chanson dansée, often dropped from performances these days–the stereo recordings by Dutoit and Prêtre omit it–which is a shame, since it’s a lovely interlude whose graceful melody is introduced and closed by a humorously off-beat mock march. The Rag-Mazurka also is full of energetic humor, momentarily sounding like a cartoon soundtrack, then like sophisticated 1920s barroom music. Poulenc’s confection is a lovely, lively piece; it ought to be heard more often and Désormière makes more of it than do his stereo-endowed rivals–Dutoit especially is much too politely refined.
The Suites from Delibes’ Coppélia and Sylvia ballets also are unalloyed joys–idiomatic, eminently danceable, and, thanks to Désormière’s lively pacing, thoroughly listenable. The Paris Conservatory Orchestra of the time was a good band and plays well, though the horns can get watery at times and the trumpets occasionally waver, though the one adds to the idiomatic flavor of the performances and the other is barely worth noting. Solo violin turns in the Ballade of Coppélia’s Finale and in Sylvia are especially well done.
All items are in monophonic sound. The 1951 Poulenc suffers from treble emphasis that makes the strings and brass shrill. The Delibes suites, from the year before, are far better sounding, yielding to stereo only in spatial dimensions, and at times filling the space between the speakers in a way that can trick the ears into thinking they’re hearing stereo used in a more tightly-focused manner than usual.
