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Royal Albert Hall Orch. Archive

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 […]