Thank you, Dave, for succinctly explaining that a slower tempo that allows details to be heard actually seems faster than a quicker one in which details turn to mush. Many young musicians could benefit from this golden chunk of wisdom.

Can we appreciate that Dave went out back of the shed to grab some shears to play music with? Your videos are getting funnier all the time.

"Where there are differences...everything that came later was an IMPROVEMENT."...You put this particular HIP practice in its place with that one line in my opinion!

I was SO guilty of that sanctimony, once upon a time. The turning point was Gardiner's recording of the Symphonie Fantastique with the ORR. I had not long before read Barzun's "Berlioz and the Romantic Century," and it just didn't make sense how someone so forward-looking as Berlioz could want his music stuck in a particular point in time. In fact, I find it hard to imagine that most great composers would say something like "No, no, no. Do NOT use those new instruments, with their greater dynamic range and expressive power, on MY music." Just doesn't make sense.

I'm anxiously awaiting Xavier Roth's release of period-accurate renditions of John Adams' early works from the 1980s- who knew that the orchestras of that time had such a different tonality from those of today? Nowadays we're quite in the dark about what the composer would have wanted concertgoers to hear on those seminal compositions.

I played Bacchanale in the district orchestra last year as a clarinet and I really enjoyed playing it. It was very challenging at first, but all of the practice I put in paid off. Also, that was the first time I heard castanets-which made me make the connection of the instrument to sexy music 😆.

Just compare Charles Dutoit's Philharmonia Phaéton on Decca - Dutoit's is splendidly paced, superbly played and recorded and suitably apocalyptic at its climax. Roth's, as suggested, sounds merely rushed with clipped phrasing and a climax as potent as a neutered dog.

Roth and Les Siècle should do Rimsky-Korsakov next.

A scathing review! From your description of 'Le Carnaval des Légumes' it sounds as if the swan had turned into an ugly duckling...🫨

Camille Saint-Saëns's "Le Carnaval des animaux" is a piece I know since early childhood. I loved the piece as a child, had records o(on cassette tape) of it, and we even listened and discussed this in music lessons in elementary school. I've heard a number of recordings of it, and admit, I still love the piece. It is fun, it pokes fun, and it should be fun. I recently heard François-Xavier Roth's recording of it. I approached it with some trepidation, as indeed: what is the point of a "period" performance of a piece that came about when the modern day symphony orchestra was already established. No doubt the HIP movement has produced some wonderful recordings, and especially in Baroque music the results have often been fascinating, even if you are not a "purist" (which I certainly am not) who believes the music must sound like "back then". But a "period" piece of a composition already written for "today's" instruments? Indeed, what's the point, because everything since then has just become "better"? That said, and this introduction was needed: I love François-Xavier Roth's performance of "Le Carnaval des animaux" (the only piece of this recording I have heard so far). Every nuance of playing is sharply edged, the recording is like a flashlight, shining spotlights onto the various instruments playing in the chambersized orchestra, I found the recording vibrant and full of flair. It may not be to everyone's liking, fair enough, but I think it's one of the most exciting recordings of that piece I have heard in a while. I had lots of fun listening to this.

Curious what you think of the Dutoit set of SS's tone poems on Decca. Also, when oh when is Brilliant going to come out with a complete SS chamber works, to compliment their fine 6-CD orchestral works? Can't think of a more ripe for issue set!

Roth sounds like the poster boy for B.H. Haggin's First Law. You cant keep a bad man down. But as to good men, I hope you'll soon do a video on Brusilow and the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia complete RCA recordings box. There are some real gems there. Also, of course, he was the concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy in most of the Columbia stereo recordings just released.

You consider doing a video on contemporary composers? I enjoy Liebermann, Puts, Rouse, etc.

One of your funniest videos. Love it. 'Keep on laughing!' should also be on your top

I was surprised to see that this group has actually recorded music by ligeti on harmonia mundi...ligeti is one of the best 20th century composers and i wonder if you planned on giving us your thoughts on this one?

Fun to watch (as often)! However (to paraphrase a famous youtuber), I was wondering if there was not some point in period instruments for French music of the late XIXth and early XXth centuries. Timpani, or at least timpani sticks, were not the same, and above all French wind instruments, specifically reeds, specifically bassoons, were not the same. A French basson does not sound like a German fagott, which is almost universally used today, even in France (not at the Orchestre National de France, nor, I think, at the Orchestre national de l'Opéra). French basson players would not accept the idea that the fagott is better! Well... just a suggestion.

Those 1950s Cluytens recordings of the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra do have different-sounding winds and brass. Those *are* "original instruments," but with a better conductor.

On a related note, The Grammy nominations for best Orchestral Performance have come out. It must be a weak year. One of the nominees is Price/Dawson from Philadelphia. Having listened to this Album on KZfaq, I'm not sure it deserves nominating. Both Jeter and Stokowski, if not better recorded, have more verve than Yannick Nézet-Séguin can provide. Still waiting for the definitive Florence Price 4th Symphony.

I always enjoy it when you denounce a CD from Hell. But I have to say--once I was done chuckling at "you can't have sex without castanets," this review left me scratching my head. I streamed this album, and I thought it was fine. So, I will check out the version from Ormandy and Philadelphia, and hopefully, I will hear what I'm missing. In the meantime--keep on striking down those musical Phaetons with your critical thunderbolts!

Maybe someone can answer this: in Carnival of the Animals, the aquarium movement - does Roth have a real, genuine glass harmonica or use a glockenspiel or synth as a substitute? The real, Ben Franklin invented instrument is so ethereal, but there aren't too many glass harmonicas out there.

This was just named an Editor’s Choice recording by Gramophone. This is not a surprising discrepancy

I have no problem with period instruments. Far more important, though, is period performance. That is, I want to imagine the composer might be in the room listening to a performance with the right excitement, vigour and feeling, with a big smile and a hug for the conductor and players at the end. The right catgut isn't going to cut it.

This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for not being on the receiving end of a Missa Brissa. Mercifully I don’t remember much from the time I was eight-days old. Despite being a huge HUP man (historically uninformed performances,) I do actually like a few FX Roth recordings. I’ll skip streaming this though. The CS-S tone poems are a wonder and shouldn’t be chastely diminished like this.

Howling. "Less lubricated bachanale."

Hmmmm . . . Perhaps Leroy Anderson's "Typewriter" could be transcribed for your hedge clippers (?). Regardless, I couldn't possibly agree more with your assessment and summation of F-X. Roth. There just isn't anything there.

Dave, I'm with you here. As long as the performance is great, instruments don't matter so much. A case in point (for me anyways) is Roy Goodman's Planets. I find the instrumental colors in the winds and brass fascinating, and well...Goodman leads a darned good Planets! But still, would it be much different had he been standing in front of the London Philharmonic. Yeah...a bit, but still, it would be Goodman's Planets.

Neeme Jarvi has a similar recording with Saint Saens orchestral works, with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra wich I like very much. Far superior to Les Siécles.

Query: If J.S. Bach could return and hear his keyboard music played on a modern Steinway or pipe organ instead of a harpsichord ("A-B it", so to speak), which would he prefer? Impossible to know, of course, but I tend to believe he would choose the modern instruments. Correct again, Dave--- modern instruments and the musicians who play them are at the apex of performance (and getting better). Most of us don't give a rip how Bach/Vivaldi/Telemann et al would have heard it "in their time". Personally, I prefer to hear it how it sounds best (subjective though that may be).

This popped up on the Presto Music app last Friday as the featured album of the week. I listened to the first minute of Phaéton & shut it off. Utterly pointless. Recordings are a zero-sum game. If HM are recording Roth & Les Siecles, they're not recording other artists.

Saint-Saëns on period instruments, sounds like a recipe for watery soup - which is no doubt what this collection is! I'm not a fan of 'period instruments' in general.

Roth should burn in Mordor. It’s good to see Saint-Saëns having a moment though.

All my Roth albums are disappointments, I have his second "fantastique", his "sacre du printemps", his "tableaux d'une exposition" and Bizet's symphony.

Uh-oh, "A Dogged Carnival of the Animals" is enough to engender unease... I also sometimes wonder why people do something that they do not have affinity for. To openly warn you - this is a singularly UGLY caricature of Saint-Saens on the cover! Not a sight I would like to lay my eyes on often. Or at all. How does THAT represent the music or the intent of the performers?

Stop The Roth!

You're as funny as Larry David sometimes, Dave. You regularly have my missus shaking with laughter - and she is not one of nature's great laughers!