Stravinsky: The Firebird - Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin S

RITE OF SPRING

Classical Music

Classical Music

TOSCANINI COLLECTION VOL 28 -

[H]ere Eduardo Mata, who recently made a fine colourful record of Copland with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, of which he is music director (RCA RL12862, 5/79), presents a comparably colourful and well-sprung reading of The Rile of Spring, one which links it with The Firebird, and the exotic tradition of Diaghilev ballet, rather than bringing Out the brutal revolutionary qualities. That is not to say it lacks power at all. In many ways it is more red-blooded than the fine versions listed above from Haitink (Philips) and Abbado (DG), and the opulent RCA recording, weighty with timpani, adds to the impact, even if with its reverbation it is not quite so analytical as those for Abbado or Haitink.

Abbado is fiercer and sharper with cleaner contrasts, Haitink is more objective with refined playing and recording, and I could go on through a long list defining various advantages. But Mata certainly earns a place with his sprung syncopations and accents, all leading you to register this as music for dancing. If the LSO playing is not quite so meticulously precise in its discipline as with Abbado, it gives even more keenly the feeling of a live performance with its changing tensions. One of my reservations is over the Prelude to Part 2—"The Mystic Circles of the Young Girls"—where at a tempo faster than usual the woodwind seem too forward and loud, obscuring the subtle string effects, while at the end of that section the ripe phrasing of the violins is very much in the espressiro tradition of Russian romanticism. Most distinctive of all perhaps, summing tip what I have been saying of the performance, is Mata's reading of the final "Sacrificial Dance". At a slower tempo than usual Mata is able to inject his characteristic rhythmic pointing, so that to a degree rare in music generally treated with objective metricality Mata introduces a swing to the rhythm, a hint of 'jazzing' which I confess I rather like.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [7/1979, reviewing Le sacre du printemps]

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...First of all, the recording is splendidly vivid and cleanly detailed, and as with other issues in this series, the silent background and noiseless surfaces of these German pressings greatly enhance one's pleasure. The Firebird Suite is well played and finely characterized... Mata's account of the splendid Symphony in three movements of 1945 is to be preferred to the Ansermet version referred to above: the orchestral playing is better and the recording is so well detailed and lifelike. The Dallas performance is not quite so taut and highly charged as was the Columbia Symphony Orchestra for Stravinsky himself but it is still thoroughly alert and idiomatic. For those wanting the Symphony in three movements this is strongly recommended and though in The Firebird, this does not displace Muti or Abbado, it is eminently acceptable.

-- Gramophone [7/1980, reviewing the Firebird Suite and the Symphony in Three Movements]

STRAVINSKY: LE SACRE GINASTE

STRAVINSKY: APOLLON MUSAGËTE,

PIERRE MONTEUX EDITION VOL 13

Classical Music

2019 release. Beatrice Rana, in the words of the New York Times, is a pianist who "has ferocious technique but is distinguished by her musical intelligence." Here she plays virtuosic, poetic works that evoke the creative ferment of Paris in the transitional early years of the 20th century: piano transcriptions of Stravinsky's iridescent ballet scores The Firebird and Petrushka, and Ravel's Miroirs and La Valse.

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Woody Herman & His Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Stoltzman. Soloist: Richard Stoltzman.

STRAVINSKY: THE RITE OF SPRING

The Soldier's Tale is a theatrical work "to be read, played, and danced" by three actors (the soldier, the devil, and a narrator) and dancers, accompanied by a septet of instruments. The libretto relates the parable of a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil in return for unlimited economic gain. The music is scored for a septet of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, cornet or trumpet), trombone, and percussion. The libretto is adapted by Roger Waters from the translation by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black, based on the original text by Charles-Ferdinand Ramus. Roger Waters recorded the album because of a personal background as Mr. Waters’ father went missing in World War II and his grandfather died in battle in World War I. The loss of his father has been a central theme throughout his live and topic for other releases. Telegraph UK: “I think I am still preoccupied by the same things that I was 30 years ago. Losing my father, and that attachment that I have to his humanity, is still central to everything that I do” Roger Waters adapted the English translation of “L’histoire du Soldat” (original title of the piece) and recorded all 3 characters himself with different accents and speaking voices.

[This] collection will thrill those who respond to instrumental spotlighting, especially in The Rite of Spring, where the big drums have a joistshaking impact (try the 111" "Dance of the Earth" on disc I, track 23). Temirkanov's readings of Petrushka (credited as the '1919' version), the 1919 Firebird Suite, the Fairy's Kiss "Divertimento" and the Pulcinella Suite have lots of personality, though there are one or two rough edges to the playing.

-- Gramophone [7/1997]