Neeme Järvi: staged beauty

The stage seems to be a natural habitat for French music: it’s where gallic composers thrive due to their proficiency at managing rhythms and melodies meant to be danced or performed. With this in mind, Neeme Järvi has made a genius move by offering an album called “French music for the stage”, played by the remarkable Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. The recording comprises pieces written by Ambroise Thomas, Daniel Auber, François-Adrien Boieldieu, Léo Delibes, and Jules Massenet. This collection is markedly lively, since these tunes exude joy, grace and unabashed enjoyment. The playing is impeccable and the conducting by Järvi is eloquent of his mastery, and commitment for delivering something that is meant to induce pleasure.  The album starts off with an intense rendition of four overtures: Raymond by Thomas, Fra Diavolo by Auber, Le calife de Bagdad and La dame blanche by Boieldieu, and it acts out as a statement of what we are about to experience throughout the album. These are followed by a few scenes from Le roi s’amuse by Delibes and what I consider the definitive highlight of the album: Espada, by Massenet.  Espada is a piece that has been unfairly overlooked by orchestras and music labels. It is a lovely ballet that was inspired by France’s endearing fascination towards Spanish music, and it simply does not disappoint: it is filled with catchy melodies and mesmerizing rhythms that delights the listener in a myriad of ways. It should be more popular indeed, but at least we can thank Järvi and this orchestra for performing and recording it with gusto and excellence.