The fifth recording from the talented students of London’s Royal Academy pairs Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with music by Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies. For his debut recording with Linn, conductor Oliver Knussen has assembled an impressive cast of contemporary composers for The Soldier’s Tale: Harrison Birtwistle as the soldier and George Benjamin as the Devil, with actress Dame Harriet Walter as the narrator. The longest work on this release, The Soldier’s Tale mixes fiendishly difficult changes of time signature with Stravinsky’s newly discovered love of jazz with melodies which echo his larger pre-war scores. It is also a work that demonstrates immense clarity and moving simplicity at times, and a sardonic wit at others. With such a starry cast this recording will be of particular interest to those with an interest in contemporary music, especially considering the addition of two new Birtwistle world premiere versions of Chorale from a Toy Shop written specially for the recording. The rest of the programme includes an exquisite Knussen arrangement of Maxwell Davies’ Canon ad honorem Igor Stravinsky, intermixed with Stravinsky’s own late commemorative miniatures. One of the pre-eminent composer-conductors in the world today, Oliver Knussen CBE is presently Sir Richard Rodney Bennett Professor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music.

Stravinsky’s Perséphone (1934) is a dynamic music-theatrical narration of the myth of Persephone’s abduction to the underworld and return to earth. The transparent, sober but evocative music epitomizes Stravinsky’s sensuous take on Neoclassicism, and the piece showcases Stravinsky’s eclectic, original and highly personal approach to music and musical drama through a playful mixture of several genres – melodrama, song, chorus, dance and pantomime. Ultimately, Perséphone offers Stravinsky’s second ode to spring, albeit without the brutal excesses of Le Sacre. This album was recorded live during the Helsinki Festival 2017 with a star cast featuring English tenor Andrew Staples and French actress Pauline Cheviller. They join forces with the Finnish National Opera’s chorus, children’s chorus and orchestra, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, in a breath-taking performance that lifts out the piece’s transformative power.

-----

REVIEW:

Radiant beauty is not a quality that is automatically associated with Stravinsky’s music. But in Perséphone he composed one of the most radiant and lyrically beautiful scores to be found anywhere in 20th-century music. It’s one of his greatest achievements. It's a beautifully modulated performance; nothing is forced, and all the elements, sung, played, and spoken, are well and carefully integrated.

– Guardian (UK)

In this celebrated Glyndebourne Festival production, David Hockney’s designs for director John Cox reinterpret the Hogarth etchings that inspired the opera’s libretto, written for Stravinsky by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman. In 2010, this revival under Glyndebourne’s Music Director, Vladimir Jurowski, captured the opera’s neo-classical spirit and its juxtaposition of whimsy, cynicism and compassion, prompting the Financial Times to call it,‘‘as enjoyable a performance of Stravinsky’s opera as any that has come along".

Recorded live at the Glyndebourne Opera House 18–19 December 2010

Bonus:
- Documentary includes an interview with David Hockney
- Introduction to the Rake’s Progress

• Picture format: NTSC 16:9
• Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
• Region code: 0 (worldwide)
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Korean
• Running time: 140 mins
• No. of DVDs: 1
  

REVIEW:

Nick Shadow speaks directly to the audience in Act 2, which justifies his winking and gurning at them at various points throughout, usually to show what a dupe his master is, and always to delicious comic effect. His costume, and in particular his hairdo, is ridiculous, yet strangely disquieting. Matthew Rose plays the part to the hilt, making clear from his very first scene that Tom is a pushover and that Anne is where the danger lies. He manages adeptly the comic aspects of the role, at least as far as the graveyard scene, when everything changes. It’s possible to imagine a darker voice for Shadow, but I find his assumption totally convincing. Topi Lehtipuu as Tom is very fine too. He captures very well indeed Tom’s love for Anne, which is genuine and will be his salvation, but which he abandons by weakness of will. Miah Persson is adorable as Anne. She brings out beautifully the vulnerability of the character, but crucially she has brilliantly understood the steely determination present in Anne’s music, and acts it out, both physically and vocally, to perfection. The smaller roles are beautifully taken, and the chorus sings and acts splendidly. Time and again I was struck, as never before, by the sheer beauty of the sound of this work, and the orchestra plays magnificently under the inspiring direction of Vladimir Jurowski.

There are other performances of The Rake’s Progress on DVD, including an earlier incarnation of this same production, finely sung but now superseded technically. Then there is the production from La Monnaie in Brussels, garishly updated to 1950s America. Rapturously received in many quarters, you are likely to love it or hate it. Either way, there is no question, this life-enhancing DVD from Glyndebourne is truly special and not to be missed.

-- MusicWeb International

One of the big events of 2017 was the opening of the Hamburg Philharmonie. Krzysztof Urbanski and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra gave inaugural concerts there that made a lasting impact on audiences and critics alike. On this occasion, the Polish conductor chose to record one of the works closest to his heart, The Rite of Spring: "Stravinsky invented a new language. For me, The Rite is not a score, but a painting: on each page, I see Matisse, Gauguin, the Fauve painters . . . It’s an explosion of colours, emotions, and surprises too: if you don’t know the piece, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s so suggestive that you don’t need to do all that much with the orchestra, the magic is written into the music. . . . When I conduct The Rite, I don’t think: the music penetrates your backbone, it’s inside you . . . It’s a ballet, and perhaps it’s because I was a dancer when I was younger that I can’t control my body when I hear and conduct this piece. It’s a mystical experience for me!" The audio recording was made in sessions in the brand new Philharmonie and the BD that accompanies the album includes the film of the concert given in February 2017 in this superb building designed by the Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron.

Peter Donohoe’s compelling journey through the complete Prokofiev and subsequently the complete Scriabin Piano Sonatas for SOMM has led him almost irresistibly to the piano music of Stravinsky whose exuberance and many technical challenges he seems to relish. He begins with three movements from Petrushka for solo piano, drawn directly from the ballet by the composer ten years after the completion of the orchestral score. Stravinsky’s goal (together with the jazz-like Piano-Rag-Music) was to encourage pianist Arthur Rubinstein to play his music. His intention was to make the arrangement not only technically challenging but also musically satisfying. Such are its demands however, that even the composer himself only played it once, confessing that he lacked the technique. This set also includes Stravinsky’s early, charmingly delicate F-sharp minor Sonata which he completed in 1904 but it was only published in 1973. The Piano Sonata of 1924, also included here, was composed during his neo-classical period and pays tribute to the 18th century containing characteristic splashes of baroque brilliance as well as latent romanticism. 1940’s Tango, originally conceived as a song, was composed soon after Stravinsky emigrated to the United States.

The Ballets Russes was a series of ballet events held in Paris between 1909 and 1929, founded by the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev. The series Diaghilev - Les ballets russes, which has been supported for man years now by SWR, has committed itself to presenting all of the works composed for and by this series.

STRAVINSKY Le Sacre du printemps. Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra 1. Symphony of Psalms 2 • Leonard Bernstein, cond; London SO; Michel Béroff (pn); 1 English Bach Festival Ch 2 • ICA 5124 (DVD: 82:00) Live: Royal Albert Hall, London 4/8/1972.


The first few days of April 1972 were busy ones for Maestro Bernstein. On April 5 he recorded The Rite of Spring in the then-trendy Quadrophonic format with the London Symphony for Columbia Records, followed that two days later with a recording of the Symphony of Psalms , and on April 8 performed this concert in memory of Stravinsky on the one-year anniversary of his passing. One might expect, given the special nature of the circumstances and Bernstein’s often-theatrical impulses, that certain expressive liberties would be taken by the conductor, but in fact these performances are nearly identical in timing with their corresponding studio counterparts—in timing, perhaps, but not necessarily in effect. I have always liked his studio recording of the Symphony of Psalms , and this concert version comes close to recreating its solemnity and power. Especially in the closing movement, his exquisite pacing emphasizes the music’s reverence, and you can read the commitment in his face. As for The Rite of Spring , Bernstein left three studio recordings (NY Phil in 1958, the LSO, and Israel Philharmonic in 1982) which got progressively slower. The LSO account is my least favorite, but this live performance is riveting. Bernstein’s level of engagement here translates into orchestral intensity—there’s no holding back the brass and percussion, and the opening of Part Two is magical. After years of taking The Rite for granted, this is one of those performances that reminds us just how remarkable Stravinsky’s achievement is. Alas, the Capriccio does not reach such exalted heights; it is a lesser and somewhat schizophrenic piece after all, and the microphone placement does the piano no favors, losing details now and then. Alongside Bernstein, who seems to view the music as a conflation of Bach, Ravel, and Gershwin, Michel Béroff injects the solo role with more steel and thus creates more sparks than he did six months earlier in the studio with Seiji Ozawa (EMI).


Watching Bernstein at work, we can see how he uses not just his hand gestures—which range from swashbuckling to serene—but his shoulders, eyes, even his eyebrows, to inspire the orchestra. But Humphrey Burton, the director, does not focus solely on the conductor; the camera follows the flow of the music, from instrument to instrument, section to section, in a most revealing manner. Apparently the original film required some restoration by the BBC television archive; nevertheless the picture quality is fine, save for a few brief points in the Symphony of Psalms where deterioration required the insertion of still frames or a momentary view of the score. There are no added special features—no interviews, no documentary footage—but none are needed. The producers no doubt took their cue from Bernstein, who, immediately after the closing notes of the Symphony of Psalms died away, left the stage before the audience could applaud. The music is enough.


FANFARE: Art Lange

Stravinsky: Petrushka & Le sacre du printemps (Version for P

“The last great father-figure of Western music” was how Leonard Bernstein eulogized Igor Stravinsky in 1972 before his homage concert in London a year after the composer’s death. Stravinsky’s works, he asserted, “sum up and embrace all of music itself – from primitive folk art to highly sophisticated serialism, from rarefied church music to outspoken jazz.”

In fact, Bernstein performed surprisingly few selections from Stravinsky’s vast output, recording most of those for Columbia Masterworks and RCA Victor, yet they include some of his most indelible interpretations. And he also delivered eloquent and revelatory lectures on the composer. Sony Classical is now pleased to collect these performances and talks in a new 6-CD box set.

One of Bernstein’s earliest passions was Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale). He studied the droll score at Tanglewood with his mentor, Serge Koussevitzky, first performing it in 1940 at a Koussevitzky family picnic. Then in 1947, after conducting it again at Tanglewood with Boston Symphony players, he recorded it, along with the enchanting Octet, on 78s for RCA.

His most celebrated Stravinsky recording came a decade later, Le Sacre du printemps with the New York Philharmonic in 1958, and it elicited the composer’s famous reaction: “Wow!” When Bernstein conducted the Sacre in the USSR the following year – with nine Moscow Symphony Orchestra players augmenting the Philharmonic – the stunned Russian audience exploded in wild cheers. The New York studio recording, wrote Classics Today just a few years ago, still has “an excitement, spontaneity, and primal fury that no other version quite matches. It fully deserves its legendary status. The remastering has been excellently done … This has to be one of the most detailed and realistically engineered performances available.”

From around the same time comes Bernstein’s “compelling and viscerally exciting” (ClassicsToday) New York Philharmonic recording of the Firebird Suite (1919 version): “a must-have” (MusicWeb International). In 1962 there followed recordings of the seldom-heard Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (with soloist Seymour Lipkin), which Bernstein had performed in Moscow on that visit with the Philharmonic, and the suite from Pulcinella (“A very enjoyable rendition by any standard … It’s good to be reminded of how much sheer fun all of this music really is, and how much warmth of feeling it contains” – ClassicsToday).

After that he didn’t return to the studio with Stravinsky’s music until 1970, but it was worth the wait. As ClassicsToday’s reviewer wrote not long ago: “As time goes on, Leonard Bernstein’s New York recording of Petrushka only gains in stature … There are two ways to perform this music: as a brilliant but somewhat abstract orchestral showpiece, and as a vivid theatrical experience. The former predominates today, but as his typically enjoyable lecture-demonstration included with the recording makes clear, Bernstein opts for the latter, and projects it as few have. And so the fair music explodes with earthy vitality, Petrushka himself comes across as touchingly pathetic, the Moor as truly angry and nasty, and the conclusion genuinely spooky. All of this is contained within an interpretation that catches the score’s rhythmic punch as few have before or since, thanks to the virtuoso response of the New York Philharmonic. Really, if you are going to do the work complete, then this is the way to go.”

Two years later, this time with the London Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein revisited Le Sacre du printemps. “This later version, wrote ClassicsToday in comparing it with the New York recording, “has similar dynamism and energy”. And in the same London Symphony sessions, joined by the English Bach Festival Chorus, he recorded the Symphony of Psalms. Gramophone’s reviewer wrote: “He never softens the pungency or the rhythmic attack of the music. His chorus, bigger and more accomplished than Stravinsky’s, has the sort of ‘straightness’ of tone that the composer was obviously aiming for, and the recording is excellent.”

That autumn, Bernstein took up residence at his alma mater, Harvard University, as Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry for the academic year 1972–73. He regarded this appointment as the greatest academic honour ever bestowed upon him: “Everything I do is in one way or another teaching,” he told an interviewer. His duties included delivering a prestigious series of lectures, which he crowned with a two-hour discussion of Stravinsky and his central position in modern music.

The heart of that memorable last Harvard appearance, entitled “The Poetry of Earth”, was an “outstanding” (ClassicsToday) performance of the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex, recorded earlier at Symphony Hall with Bernstein conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Harvard Glee Club, and featuring René Kollo as Oedipus, Tatiana Troyanos as Jocasta and Tom Krause as Creon. When it was first released on LP in 1976, Gramophone’s Stravinsky specialist wrote: “It is amazing what dramatic truth emerges from the score if only the details of vocal writing, instrumentation, dynamics, are observed accurately and with feeling for their meaning. That happens, I think, almost throughout Bernstein’s new recording, which has the strongest cast of soloists that I can remember hearing in the work.”

This shattering performance of Stravinsky’s massive work, which conveys the same undiluted savage intensity as Bernstein’s Sacre, is aptly presented in Sony’s new edition within the original context of his “Poetry of Earth” lecture. Like every item in this indispensable new edition of Bernstein’s Stravinsky – also containing the conductor’s spoken introduction to Petrushka from 1970 – it is offered in the newest remastering from analogue tape.