Dmitri Kitayenko has been Music Advisor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra since the 2011/12 season. And if there is something with which Maestro Kitayenko has a special affinity, it is the Russian repertoire. It was not surprising, therefore, that he decided on Stravinsky for the first recording of this cooperation between the Orchestra and the Oehms Classics label. This recording includes Stravinsky's very first work, the Symphony in E-flat major, as well as the rarely performed Suites 1 &2 orchestrated by Stravinsky during the years 1921 and 1925. These works for chamber orchestra, however, were originally composed from 1914 to 1920 during the composer's years of exile in Switzerland. The Zagreb Philharmonic is an orchestra boasting a 147-year-old tradition of distinguished performing in Zagreb and Croatia. It has been a promoter of the art of music across Croatia as well as the country's cultural ambassacdor in the world. As one of the trademarks of the city it operates in, the music institution that boasts a long and notable tradition embodies the image of Zagreb as a Central European urban center of music, art, and culture.

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe performs Stravinsky's Apollon musagete and Pulcinella Suite, repertoire that demands the fresh and energetic delivery for which the COE is renowned. The COE deliver the 'wonderful freshness' Stravinsky himself envisioned in Apollon musagete with their bright and spirited performance. The Guardian commented: "In Stravinsky's Apollon musagete each and every player contributed to the distinctive, rich-toned sonority." The Pulcinella Suite is a ballet based on some of Pergolesi's most memorable music. The COE has recorded the more unusual 1949 'revised' version of the 1922 concert suite which is in eight sections and performed without voices. The Independent commented: "Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite brimmed over with the energy and insight of first-rate musicians discovering every opportunity such sunny music offered them." The COE recorded this album at eglise Maronite Notre-Dame-du-Liban, Paris, in November 2008. They performed this Stravinsky programme at Cite de la musique, Paris, Konzerthaus, Vienna and Philharmonie, Luxembourg to widespread critical acclaim.

STRAVINSKY, I.: Soldier's Tale Suite / Octet / Les Noces (Tianwa Yang, Virginia Symphony Chorus, Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Players, Falletta) The three works on this recording were composed at a crucial juncture in Stravinsky's musical life. The Soldier's Tale, a small-scale theatrical work for instrumental septet, narrator and two speakers completed in 1918 [Naxos 8.573537]. It is performed here in the suite premi�red in 1920. The Octet marked a new element in Stravinsky's writing, inaugurating a turn to neo-classicism, whilst Les noces (The Wedding) is a ballet cantata impelled by dramatic motor rhythms, and once again saturated in his Russian background. Scored for pitched and unpitched percussion, vocal soloists, and mixed chorus, it is a pivotal work in Stravinsky's development.

This double album offers a testimony to Stravinsky’s overwhelming musical heritage, covering all the phases of his creative life. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) is twentieth-century music! More than any other composer, he continued to develop his compositional style throughout his seven-decade-spanning career, innovating and adopting all the most important musical trends of his century. Historically, the musical journey starts with one of the first recordings of the recently rediscovered Funeral Song (1909), composed as a tribute to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov. The next phase in his development is represented with the raw but tremendously refined Rite of Spring (1913), Stravinsky’s most famous work that created a scandal at its Paris world premiere, and immediately turned him into a star. His Neoclassical style is showcased by Jeu de cartes (1937) and the Concerto in D (1947), whereas Agon (1957) presents Stravinsky’s original take on Schoenberg’s serialism. This multifarious repertoire is performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and their Music Director Gustavo Gimeno, who continue their acclaimed PENTATONE series of composer portraits that already featured monographs of Shostakovich, Bruckner, Ravel and Mahler.

Classical Music

Stravinsky: Petrushka and The Rite of Spring for Two Pianos

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This very fine collection offers Alexander Gibson's enthusiastic and seriously underrated performances of Stravinsky's three orchestral symphonies and Ode. More to the point, these are among the finest-sounding discs in the Chandos catalogue, on a par with that fabulous collection of Elgar overtures that put Gibson, his orchestra, and Chandos on the musical map, at least in this country. The Elgar disc seems to be out of print at present, but these vibrant renditions of the Stravinsky symphonies help to make up for that deficiency. The complete ballet The Fairy's Kiss, based on the music of Tchaikovsky, and the Symphonies of Wind Instruments conducted by the young Simon Rattle, generously round out a program that offers exceptional value for the money. A fine reissue.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Recorded in: Potton Hall, Suffolk 21-23 November 1998 Producer(s) Ralph Couzens Sound Engineer(s) Ralph Couzens Richard Smoker (Assistant)

Classical Music

The young Stravinsky became acquainted with large parts of the Western music repertoire through piano arrangements. That might have been one reason for his later compositional practice to arrange major works for piano duet or for two pianos as well. With the new album "Petrushka", the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo has achieved it's intention to present a complete collection of Igor Stravinsky's published piano arrangements. The present recording contains two ballets which show Stravinsky's compositional development within the genre: the almost film-like burlesque "Petrushka" (1910/11) as well as the abstract late work "Agon" (1953/57) which puts the ancient Greek concept of competition into a contradictory musical setting. In addition, it contains two arrangements of concert pieces: "Concertino" for string quartet (1920) lives on the alternation between homogeneous instrumental passages and soloistic crossed accents. The orchestral "Scherzo a la Russe" (1944) as 'jazz commercial' testifies to Stravinsky's adaptation to his life in America as well as to his love of the Russian types of form at the turn of the century. In their recording, Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams present the special charms of Igor Stravinsky's music in 'black and white': The piano arrangements reflect the sheer brilliance of his oeuvre in a concentrated form.

Wergo's Studio reihe series CD reissues continue with a classic recording of Stravinsky's last ballet, Agon, performed by the Sinfonie Orchester des Sedwestfunks, Baden-Baden conducted by Hans Rosbaud and originally released on LP in 1964. Agon was written.

Igor Strawinsky writes in his memoirs about the composition of "Petruschka": "While I was writing this music I clearly imagined a suddenly liberated puppet which brings the orchestra to the brink of despair with its diabolical leaps, answered by the orchestra in its turn with threatening fanfares. While going for walks by Lake Geneva after I had finished this bizarre piece, I searched for a title in my mind which would express in one word the essence of my music and accordingly the essence of the figure in my imagination. One day I sprang in the air for joy. Petrushka, the eternal and unhappy hero of all fairs in all countries - I had found my title." In "Jeu de cartes" Strawinsky has changed from a Russian story-teller to a worldly, well-read stylist. "Jeu de Cartes" is an interpretation in dance of a game of poker in three rounds, in which the Joker makes itself felt in a confusing and disturbing way.