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Rite of Spring Archive

STRAVINSKY: Chant funebre; Le Sacre du Printemps – Sophie Koch, mezzo-soprano/ Lucerne Festival Orchestra/ Riccardo Chailly – Decca

STRAVINSKY: Chant funebre; Le Sacre du Printemps – Sophie Koch, mezzo-soprano/ Lucerne Festival Orchestra/ Riccardo Chailly – Decca

by | Jan 27, 2018 | Classical CD Reviews

This compilation of Stravinsky’s early works restores a long-lost tribute to the composer’s revered teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov. STRAVINSKY: Chant funebre, Op. 5; Feu d’artifice, Op. 4; Scherzo fantastique, Op. 3; Le Faune et la Bergere, Op. 2; Le Sacre du Printemps – Sophie Koch, mezzo-soprano/ Lucerne Festival Orchestra/ Riccardo Chailly – Decca 483 2562, 70:19 (1/12/18) [Distr. by Universal] *****:  The 2015 discovery of Stravinsky’s Funeral Song, Op. 5 in St. Petersburg, a result of the refurbishing of the old Conservatory building in Teatralnaya Ploshchad, marks much of the import of this release, recorded 16-19 August 2017. Stravinsky composed the Funeral  Song (1908) as a memorial to his teacher Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov; but after its initial premiere in January 1909, the score disappeared, despite the composer’s having called it “the best of my works before The Firebird.” Indeed, the opening measures of the score possess chromatic figures and tremolo effects that quite adumbrate aspects of the later ballet, especially the theme that depicts the “Sudden Appearance of Prince Ivan.” The succession of individual instrumental colors forms a funereal wreath to be laid at the foot of Rimsky-Korsakov’s bier, and the music will rise up in bucolic but solemn procession that more than […]

STRAVINSKY: Piano Four Hands — Petrushka; The Rite of Spring – Lomazov-Rackers Piano Duo – MSR Classics 

STRAVINSKY: Piano Four Hands — Petrushka; The Rite of Spring – Lomazov-Rackers Piano Duo – MSR Classics 

by | Oct 28, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

STRAVINSKY: Three Movements from Petrushka (piano four-hands version); The Rite of Spring (piano four-hands version) – Lomazov-Rackers Piano Duo – MSR Classics MS 1628, 47:46 [Distr. by Albany] ****: Stravinsky created multiple piano versions of his great ballets, not necessarily for performance, but for rehearsal. There is even a record of he and Debussy playing the score of Rite of Spring together during one of these prelims. Hearing these is often enlightening, as there are parts which conductors either fail to bring out properly during performance, or are the result of bad orchestration on the composer’s part (yes, this certainly did happen with some of these gargantuan orchestrations). The resulting clarity can be illuminating, while at the same time they obviously lack the dramatic import and sheer overwhelming volume of sound that we are all used to. In the case of the multi-player arrangements, they can be done for two pianos or one piano-two players, and the Lomazov-Rackers Duo has opted for this latter setup as they believe it leads to the best presentation of these pieces. Now common in recitals, these once backstage wonders are taking their rightful place in the eyes of the public, only adding to the […]

STRAVINSKY:The Firebird Suite; Petrushka; Les cinq droits; Valse and Polka; Valse pour les infants – fragment; The Rite of Spring – Part I; MOZART: Fugue in c – Beecham Sym. Orch./ Sir Thomas Beecham/ Royal Albert Hall Orch./ Sir Eugene Goossens/ Berlin State Opera Orch./ Oskar Fried/ The Philadelphia Orch./ Stokowski – Igor Stravinsky, Soulima Stravinsky, pianos – Pristine Audio

STRAVINSKY:The Firebird Suite; Petrushka; Les cinq droits; Valse and Polka; Valse pour les infants – fragment; The Rite of Spring – Part I; MOZART: Fugue in c – Beecham Sym. Orch./ Sir Thomas Beecham/ Royal Albert Hall Orch./ Sir Eugene Goossens/ Berlin State Opera Orch./ Oskar Fried/ The Philadelphia Orch./ Stokowski – Igor Stravinsky, Soulima Stravinsky, pianos – Pristine Audio

by | Apr 11, 2017 | Classical Reissue Reviews

Pristine completes its survey of the acoustic Stravinsky legacy and simultaneously accords us access to a special sound world. STRAVINSKY: Rarities (1916 – 1938) = The Firebird – Suite excerpts (1911); Petrushka – Complete Ballet; The Firebird – Suite (1919); 7 Pieces from Les cinq droits; Valse and Polka from Three Easy Pieces; Valse pour les enfants – fragment; The Rite of Spring – Part I (beginning); MOZART: Fugue in c minor, K. 426 – Beecham Symphony Orchestra/ Sir Thomas Beecham/ Royal Albert Hall Orchestra/ Sir Eugene Goossens (Petrushka)/ Berlin State Opera Orchestra/ Oskar Fried (Firebird)/ The Philadelphia Orchestra/ Leopold Stokowski (Rite)/ Igor Stravinsky, piano/ Soulima Stravinsky, piano (Mozart) – Pristine Audio PASC 496, 78:13 [www.pristineclassical.com] *****:   Audio restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn assembles those remaining acoustic documents that fill out the Stravinsky legacy in its recording infancy, including some magical moments that the shellacs yield that prove refreshing and revelatory. To wit, the three 1916 excerpts from The Firebird that open the disc – with Sir Thomas Beecham’s leading his own ensemble – reveal a host of interior lines, especially in the woodwinds for the section Game of the Princesses with the Golden Apples, that literally sparkle with exuberant […]

STRAVINSKY: Pulcinella Suite; Appolon Musagete; Concerto in D for Strings – Tapiola Sinfonietta/ Masaaki Suzuki – BIS

STRAVINSKY: Pulcinella Suite; Appolon Musagete; Concerto in D for Strings – Tapiola Sinfonietta/ Masaaki Suzuki – BIS

by | Dec 7, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

STRAVINSKY: Pulcinella Suite; Appolon Musagete; Concerto in D for Strings – Tapiola Sinfonietta/ Masaaki Suzuki  – BIS multichannel SACD 2211, 64:55 [Distr. by Naxos] (6/3/16) ****½: A sensational performance in high-definition sound of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite. Masaaki Suzuki must be pleased to see the culmination of his long-term project of recording all of Bach’s choral music, which has been handsomely released on a 55-SACD set by BIS. But for this indefatigable artist there is no rest. We find him on the back cover dressed in white, a radiant sage with hands suggesting restless intelligence. For this recording, he has crossed oceans, continents and centuries to give us an all-Stravinsky concert with the superb Finnish Tapiola Sinfonietta. The Pulcinella Suite is the main attraction here, and it is a piece of wondrous invention. It is a tired cliche to point out that it belongs to the composers “classical” rediscovery of the past; It is utterly unlike the other works from that period. In fact, it sounds more eternally fresh than The Rite Of Spring or Firebird. Perhaps it constitutes a masterpiece in a genre best nominated “the comic sublime.” Each movement limns a radically individual musical character associated with Commedia dell’ […]

Audio News for April 12, 2013

by | Apr 12, 2013 | Audio News

38 Different Recordings of The Rite of Spring; Turn Your TV Into a Very Smart TV; Shapiro Says Hollywood and Consumer Electronics ‘Need Each Other”; Does Your Home Have an “Electronic Elephant?”