Minkowski moves into pole position with this fabulous new disc of familiar fare

Marc Minkowski’s partnership with the Naïve label has got off to a rousing start with this magnificent Bizet album. When faced with performances as utterly persuasive as this, it does get one hankering yet again for more first-class Bizet works than we actually have, but grateful that we do at least have these and the few others.

The conductor is a great admirer of Sir Thomas Beecham in this repertoire and, separated as they are by era and nationality, the Englishman’s spirit is alive and well here. Minkowski has a ball with these suites, relishing their rich sonorities and glorious melodies, while at the same time investing them with a serious-minded sensitivity. The L’Arlésienne suites have rarely sounded so genuinely moving. Les Musiciens du Louvre are alert to Minkowski’s every nuance and the Lyon Opera Chorus’s contribution comes as an exuberant climax.

In the Carmen suite, as elsewhere, Minkowski fully indulges the great melodic sweeps without overdoing things. So one feels satisfed but never bloated.

The whole album is a real treat. And it arrives in a quite lovely and luxurious booklet. A thing of rare beauty in every sense.

-- Gramophone [6/2008]

There are many very good recordings of this music, but few truly great ones, and even fewer that make the music sound new (and old--more on that anon). This certainly is one of them, the finest disc of Carmen and L'Arlésienne suites since Markevitch with the Lamoureux Orchestra. Marc Minkowski offers the standard L'Arlésienne suites, plus a selection of the original incidental music shorn of the tiny bits of fragmentary fluff that make hearing the complete score such a frustrating experience. This permits the most complete appreciation of Bizet's genius thus far available on disc in this particular work. The Carmen music includes the prelude and standard entr'actes, with a reprise of the prelude to round off the proceedings. It's all so intelligent and enjoyable for home listening.

Better still, using period-ish instruments, Minkowski achieves a truly "French" sound, perhaps for the first time on disc since the 1950s or '60s. The compact ensemble sonority, pert winds, bright brass, and slightly wiry strings restore to the music so much of its innate vividness. Listen to the high-kicking brass in the Carmen Prelude, or the rhythmic "ping" that Minkowski brings to the Carillon in L'Arlésienne. Then there's the wonderfully touching but never sticky Adagietto and a closing Farandole that brings a genuine physical thrill to the program's conclusion (and you get to hear the music's first version, with voices, from Bizet's theatrical score). Perfectly natural sonics present the whole program with tactile immediacy, and the deluxe booklet is magnificent. You're going to love this.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com