Bizet symphony in C; Jeux D'enfants; Roma

Orchestre de Paris/Paavo Järvi Virgin Classics 628 6130 ***

Paavo Järvi here spurns the popular suites that were compiled from Bizet's Carmen and L'Arlésienne. To survey the composer's orchestral output, he turns his gaze instead on the composer's delightful teenage Symphony in C, equally delightful orchestration of Jeux d'enfants(originally a suite for piano duet), and the oddly unsuccessful Roma, which Bizet began as a symphony and struggled with for more than a decade, leaving it to be published posthumously as a suite. Järvi works hard and earnestly at making the not quite a sow's ear of Roma into some sort of silk purse. His handling of the symphony is nicely breezy, but the music- making is not quite as deft or as easily sprung in rhythm as in the best performances. Jeux d'enfants, however, is as irrepressible as you would expect a set of miniatures for children to be.

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