Debussy: La Mer (with Dutilleux - L'Arbre des songes [Concerto for violin and orchestra], etc)

"[Sitkovetsky] cuts an assertive line through [Dutilleux's L'arbre des Songes]' dark dissonance like a Gallic philosopher illuming the absurd. Jansons's orchestra is delicious in swarming, weightless textures. On either side, more solid works appear. Debussy's heaving, salty La Mer surges vividly, although not always with the threatening undercurrents that awed the non-swimming composer. Ravel's La Valse careers deliriously with grotesque steps neatly played, a rumbustious contrast to Dutilleux's contemporary scintillations." The Times, 17th May 2008 ****

"With excellent performances of Debussy's La mer, Ravel's La valse, and Henri Dutilleux' violin concerto L'arbre des songes, Jansons demonstrates that he can also hold his own in French repertoire.This is actually an understatement, since in La mer the briny seawater splashes in your face and you feel the swelling of the waves, the ebb and flow, and the thrusting flow of the tide in a way that rarely happens in other recordings. In La valse it is immediately the suggestive, secret mysterious opening bars that under Jansons' direction imperceptibly and gradually lead, first carefully but shortly thereafter irresisibtly, to a dancing waltz. The progression to the sinister dance of death in the last section becomes inevitable. Dmitry Sitkovetsky is the first-class soloist in Dutilleux' fantastic violin concerto-a modern masterpiece for which the strongest possible case is made. RCO 08001 is a high point in the entire catalog." Erik Voermans, Parool, 4th March 2008

"...Jansons has the courage to explore the darkness behind the Gallic sophistication. So the fierceness of the spray is almost palpable in Debussy's La Mer, and there is menace in the way Ravel's La Valse whirls towards its conclusion. The Concertgebouw Orchestra has the subtlety of colouring to bring something of its own to the music, from the pastel-edged tints of its solo woodwind to the velvety warmth of its strings and the edge of its brass. Last but not least, Dmitry Sitkovetsky explores the dreamland of Dutilleux's "violin concerto" with insight to match the composer's glistening orchestral writing." The Telegraph, 26th April 2008

"The magic of Jansons's conducting with the orchestra of which he is chief conductor could not be more compelling." Gramophone Magazine, July 2008