Franck: Hulda (Bru Zane)

[Alan Howe]

We've discussed the opera at some length and mentioned the Bru Zane release, but perhaps we need an opportunity to debate its merits here...

To kick us off, my initial impression is that the Bru Zane recording features a more disciplined orchestral response, but I haven't come to any firm conclusions about the singing - yet. It's certainly an enormously sophisticated score; when I think back to pre-CD days when I was fascinated by Franck and his followers, I would never have imagined that a recording would be made one day - and now we have two!