SCO & François Leleux - Bizet & Gounod - The Arts Desk

Initial impressions are disconcerting, the bass thwacks at the start of the first suite extracted from Bizet’s Carmen by Ernest Giraud almost too polite, but the ears adjust quickly; what we get is what you’d hear in an orchestra pit. I’d forgotten how good this music is in its original form, having spent too much time recently marvelling at Rodion Shchedrin’s offbeat string transcription. François Leleux’s Scottish Chamber Orchestra are superb, flautist Silvia Careddu and oboist Robin Williams deserving shout-outs. You know that this CD will prove to be a winner just a few seconds into the little “Intermezzo”, Bizet’s melody passing neatly between solo winds. Leleux is unfussy but affectionate, giving the music enough space to breathe whilst revelling in the extrovert moments.

Bizet’s Symphony No. 1 was composed in 1855 when he was just 17 but waited 80 years for a first performance. Why Bizet buried the work and never referred to its existence is a mystery; it’s a superb work, and not just for a teenager. Beethoven’s influence is never far away, tempered with a generous dose of Rossini. This performance has irresistible bounce and joie de vivre, Leleux’s dashing tempo in the finale never an issue for the SCO strings. You’re repeatedly struck by how idiomatically Bizet wrote for wind instruments, and there’s an apt coupling in the shape of the Petite Symphonie, written by Bizet’s mentor Gounod for nine winds. One of many works commissioned by flautist Paul Taffanel, it’s a delight, and demonstrates just how good Parisian woodwind playing was in the 19th century. There’s a rumour that Gounod deliberately gave the second oboe very little to play, getting his own back on a musician he suspected of having an affair with his wife. Leleux plays principal oboe here but never hogs the limelight. A real feel-good disc, with sumptuous sound.