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Rhapsodie: Fantasie: Poème

05/04/2009
The Courier Mail (Australia)
Patricia Kelly
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…  the package forges a strong French-Australian link. In 1987 Barry Tuckwell gave the first performance of Damase's Rhapsodie. Its first recording here features another Australian Ben Jacks on horn, Tuckwell conducting Orchestra Victoria. A slight wisp of romanticism flavours the music, piquant and spare, a little less ironic than Damase's Concerto for horn and orchestra that opens the program, Tuckwell conducting The Queensland Orchestra . With Orchestra Victoria, Tuckwell shows how well British composer G. W. L. Marshall-Hall’s Phantasy fits the Gallic bill. Another Australian Paul Terracini re- orchestrated Villanelle, a charming morsel from Paul Dukas recorded here in this version for the first time. Our Queensland band also features in the three-movement Poème of Charles Koechlin and Morceau by Saint-Saëns which highlights the technical facility with which Jacks makes the whole project shine. (The quirky elegance of this music is more specialist territory than easy listening, but the effort of engaging with its ethos has its own rewards.)