Another month, another complete Daphnis et Chloé. It was only in May that I warmly welcomed the recording by the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin on BIS. Here now is one by the Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris under Philippe Jordan. The difference in programming is that Nézet-Séguin couples his Daphnis with the Pavane pour une infante défunte; Jordan chooses La valse.

The spirit of the dance inhabits both Daphnis interpretations. Jordan’s was made in the wake of a series of stagings of the ballet at the Opéra Bastille last year. Nézet-Séguin’s did not have the same theatrical background but he nevertheless seemed to respond in an instinctively dramatic way to the ebbs and flows of the action. Maybe, too, his view of the score as a purely symphonic entity, rather than as one shaped by the dancers onstage, gives him the edge in putting the music on to CD: there is a more refined focus on colour than in Jordan’s interpretation, and passages such as the ‘Danse guerrière’ are more elemental in their force. But there is also much to commend in Jordan’s version, not least the way in which he graces the rhythms and dynamics with natural, malleable inflection and crafts the textures with such care.

It always creates a conundrum when two creditable versions of the same work come out in quick succession, and here either of them would fit the bill. It is just that Nézet-Séguin’s has the more compelling presence.