Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969)
Ansermet formed the Geneva-based L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in 1918 and conducted it for fifty years, a period of five decades that yielded numerous great Decca LPs.
Ernest Ansermet conducts Ravel’s La valse with the Suisse Romande Orchestra [1957 film]
Ah I have always been an admirer of this great 20th century conductor. I have the box LP sets of his Debussy and Ravel in great Decca sound . Of lesser known repertoire in his catalogue there is also his Sibelius 4 and Tapiola on a single LP.
Now reissued on CD and a splendid No 2. The sound on both issues (LP) is fantastic.
I also have a lot of Stravinsky which is most enjoyable. He seems to have slipped down a bit today but deserves a full accolade for a long career in music making.
Thanks so much for this, Col. I seem to remember an ITV (!) programme about Ansermet a couple of decades ago which featured an excerpt from this video, but I’ve never seen the whole thing. It is superb. A supremely clear conducting technique, but with flexibility too. Such eloquent sub-dividing, only when necessary. The piece flows, and is all the more exciting for not being pulled about in the pseudo-parodistic way beloved of some other illustrious maestri. As a teenager I used to get all excited about the EMI/Orchestre de Paris/Karajan recording, but nowadays it seems to me enervated as if in a sauna, both acoustically and interpretatively. I suppose I was also prejudiced a bit at the time by the Decca producer John Culshaw’s yesterday’s-man dismissal of Ansermet’s last decade in his fascinating, gossipy autobiography ‘Putting the Record Straight’ (rare and extortionate online these days!). Culshaw has no time for Ansermet’s recordings of the Viennese classics, but I’ve always admired his Beethoven 9 (with Joan Sutherland!). The book’s a great read, though – a zeitgeisty chronicle of a vital slice of recording history. I’ll look out the Sibelius 4 you mention, Edward. I’d forgotten he’d recorded it.
Andrew, Ansermet’s Sibelius is gathered here:
https://www.eloquenceclassics.com/releases/sibelius-symphonies-2-4-rachmaninov-isle-of-the-dead-2/
I believe I wrote the booklet note! Colin