Nuages begins with a phrase from clarinets and bassoons suggestive to some ears of the Dies irae. It and the English horn’s interventions add a somber tinge which Andris Nelsons used to tint Debussy’s muted “study in grey”. Nuanced shading and dynamics plus seamless phrasing immersed the hall in billowing clouds of mist and the listener in an eerie dream world of sleepwalkers troubled by things that go bump in the night. Fêtes dispelled those clouds with a shaft of light, restoring a sense of time and space with propulsive, animated rhythms driving to a festive conclusion. The blended voices of the Lorelei Ensemble, placed along the side wall behind the strings, floated above them and beckoned with their sirens’s call from a world of enchantment and wonder, a limbo of forgetfulness, which the balance and blend Nelsons maintained throughout the Nocturnes here helped create.“

Bachtrack

„Nelsons and the BSO offered playing that elevated tone color to the level of tempo, harmony, texture, and rhythm. “Nuages” was a study in atmosphere and nuance, its shifting instrumental combinations and billowy gestures—not to mention Robert Sheena’s exquisite English horn solos—models of refinement.

The aptly named Lorelei Ensemble brought shapeliness and warmth to the vocal element in the concluding “Sirènes.” As in Nocturnes’ earlier sections, tempos and the blend of instruments here were near-ideal, Nelsons taking care to cushion the voices just above the orchestral fabric, like they were floating on the first movement’s clouds. The results were hypnotic and otherworldly.“

Boston Classical Review