After Franck, Debussy and Strauss, Mikko Franck and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France here continue their collaboration with Alpha Classics, this time with the spotlight on Igor Stravinsky. The program begins with two pieces from his so-called ‘neo-classic’ period: his Capriccio and Octet. In the first, in which Stravinsky sets up a dialogue between piano and orchestra, the soloist is one of the great stars of the new generation, the French pianist Nathalia Milstein. Then the mood darkens, with the primitive rhythms and ferocious chordal attack of The Rite of Spring, a work that Mikko Franck has long since wanted to immortalize on album: a major masterpiece of the 20th century and an essential milestone for every orchestra. Every single player seems to be on fire in this recording, which puts the seal on seven years of collaboration and achievement with its Finnish Music Director.

Classical Music

Stravinsky composed a small but significant body of works for wind instruments of which the larger ones are presented here, by the Swedish Wind Ensemble. The first three wind works, Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Octet and Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, were created in the twenties, while the concluding two wind works, Circus Polka and Ebony Concerto, were Stravinsky’s few excursions into the genres of jazz and popular music in mid 1900’s. Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920, revised 1947) is considered one of Stravinsky’s greatest works. Octet (Octuor) (1923, new version 1952) is recognized as one of the first works in the neoclassical genre. Concerto for Piano and Winds (1923-24, revised 1950) is one among several piano pieces composed as vehicles for Stravinsky himself in an effort to make money as a performer. Swedish-Polish pianist Peter Jablonski is internationally acclaimed for his natural fluency of playing and an extraordinarily deep knowledge of piano repertoire, which make his performances timeless and captivating. Jablonski has been performing on major world stages for over twenty-five years. His extensive discography includes recordings he has made for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, and Altara labels for thirty years. He received numerous awards for his recordings, which include the Edison award and the Grammophone Classical Music Award. Clarinettist Johan Söderlund is the currently serving concertmaster of the Swedish Wind Ensemble. Apart from his work in the classical field Söderlund is a comfortable performer in jazz and other improvised music which mirrors his broad musical tastes and skills.

STRAVINSKY Violin Concerto. 1 Zvezdolikiy. 2 Symphonies of Wind Instruments. 3 Le sacre du printemps (1911-1913; 1947/1967) 4 • Robert Craft, cond; Jennifer Frautschi (vn); 1 Gregg Smith Singers; 2 O of St. Luke’s; 2 20th Century Classics Ens; 3 Philharmonia O • NAXOS 8.557508 (67:42)


The first thing that strikes one about this disc is the marvelous sound of the orchestra; Craft achieves a balance of chamber and orchestral character that fits the Violin Concerto perfectly. Of course the musicians and engineering team deserve credit, too, but it is Craft’s vision, understanding, and ability to get exactly what he wants that make the difference. The composer’s 1960 stereo recording with Isaac Stern is rhythmically square (and Stern’s energetic playing is sabotaged by ugly recorded sound), whereas Craft swings nicely. Stravinsky’s 1930s performance with Samuel Dushkin is closer to this one. If I seem to be favoring Craft over Stravinsky as an interpreter and conductor of the latter’s music, so be it. Now in his eighties, Craft is surpassing most of his former efforts, and many of these Naxos recordings stand as the finest of all. I am reminded of the truism that Schoenberg’s works suffered from being so badly played for half a century: well, so did many of Stravinsky’s, beginning with the works immediately following the big three ballets. Craft’s recent Les noces , for example, is superior to any earlier recording.


Getting back to the Violin Concerto, Frautschi is a superb young violinist who has specialized in 20th- and 21st-century music. She plays the bright yet silky “ex-Cadiz” Stradivarius, which stands out from the ensemble or fits right in, as required. Whether Frautschi or Craft is driving this performance doesn’t matter; the results are wonderful: savory, clean, punchy, and yet light. I am thoroughly beguiled by Itzhak Perlman’s beautiful playing of this Concerto on DG, and by the Boston Symphony’s eloquent accompaniment, but this performance does the piece more justice.


Zvezdolikiy is better known by its French title, Le roi des étoiles (“King of the Stars”), but Craft translates it as “The Star-Faced One.” I think I’ve encountered this recording before, but I can’t place it—this series petered out on two other labels (MusicMasters, Koch International) before Naxos came to its rescue. No matter: this is a fine reading by excellent forces, very well recorded. The booklet offers an English text. Craft plays the original score of Symphonies of Wind Instruments (the composer led the simplified 1947 version in Sony’s “The Recorded Legacy”) and makes it sound surprisingly mellow, at one point almost jolly.


Stravinsky was always touching up his music, every time he performed anything. My Boosey & Hawkes score of Le sacre says “Revised 1947, Re-engraved edition 1967,” which I think means only that this 1990s publication duplicates a 1967 one. Of course a Stravinsky- or Craft-led performance needn’t be limited by a published score. Oh well, thought I, Craft’s always brilliant, always fascinating program notes will explain all. But Craft writes only a “chronicle” of the composition and early performances, never getting past April 6, 1914. Whatever “1911–1913; 1947/1967” means, this performance sounds as if most of the awkward moments have been cleaned up, but the baby has been thrown out with the bath water. The orchestral playing is less vibrant than that of the London Symphony in Craft’s 1995 Koch recording, which later appeared on Naxos ( Fanfare 29:3). A too-warm recording doesn’t help; timpani and bass drums are a bit distant and muffled, which will never do in this music. In the final Sacrificial Dance, the playing becomes a bit sloppy. I note that this performance lasts 33:41, the earlier one 31:58; the difference is certainly noticeable. Both performances were recorded at Abbey Road Studio 1, this one in 2006. Perhaps the revised score explains why modern performances seldom thrill the way early ones did (and still do), in particular Salonen’s recent Los Angeles Philharmonic SACD spectacular being less satisfying than Stravinsky’s cramped, monaural 1940 recording with the New York Philharmonic.


At Naxos prices, you can afford to buy this CD just for the Concerto.


FANFARE: James H. North

After the tremendous success of his early ballets, Igor Stravinsky changed focus in several ways, from modernism to neoclassicism, and from large ensembles to very small ones. 'The Soldier's Tale' was part of this change, a theater piece for three actors and seven musicians, with music that reflected distinctly non-Russian influences such as tango and ragtime. The work has become most popular in suite form, partly because C. F. Ramuz's sing-song spoken text, originally in French, is seen by many as tiresome and overly moralistic. In this performance, the text is heard in a popular English translation by Michael Flanders. Nicholas Ward leads the Northern Chamber Orchestra in a solid performance that features nice solo turns from all concerned, including Ward himself on violin. The disc also includes Stravinsky's ersatz Brandenburg, the "Dumbarton Oaks" Concerto in E flat.

REVIEW:

Robert Craft's performance of The Rite of Spring, rescued from oblivion, proves that in the early ballets he can be both accurate as well as exciting. Extremely well played by the London Symphony, seldom have the complex textures in the Introduction to Part One or the Ritual of the Rival Tribes sounded so clear and natural. And yet, in the Dance of the Earth, or the concluding Sacrificial Dance, Craft pulls out all of the stops to really impressive effect. The sonics are excellent, both here and in The Nightingale--this latter a beautiful, neglected piece that sounds much better in its original operatic form than in its later, formally somewhat dysfunctional symphonic dress. Once again Craft leads a superb performance of the orchestral part, and the singers are mostly fine. Olga Trifonova's bright soprano does well by the nightingale...with transliterated text and English translation, this is a very good deal.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

It only took three compositions - L’oiseau de feu (The Firebird), Petrushka, and Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) - for Igor Stravinsky to catapult into stardom. These three ballets were written between 1910 and 1913. The two ballet works featured on this album, Le sacre du printemps, and L’oiseau de feu, are arguably the most performed of his three ballets. This recording of the two are recorded by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, conducted by Andres Orozco-Estrada. The Frankfurt Radio Symphony was one of the first radio symphonies in Germany. Founded in 1929, they have successfully balanced the delicate tasks of preserving tradition and keeping up with modern music.

A subtle alchemy and a powerful performance.

The association of Robert Craft with The Rake’s Progress spans the 45 years between this recording and his first meeting with Stravinsky in 1948 on the same day that W.H. Auden delivered the completed libretto to the composer. Craft subsequently became involved in what he describes as “the first step” in the composition of the opera, especially in helping Stravinsky master the pronunciation, vocabulary and rhythms of the English text. This involvement is described in an extract from Robert Craft’s memoirs in the booklet. Craft’s recordings of Stravinsky and others, in this case originally on the MusicMasters label, have seen a recent revival from Naxos with their ‘Robert Craft Collection’, and very excellent they are too.

With the label’s bargain pricing position, it seems fairest to compare like with more-or-less like in that department. My main reference has been Stravinsky’s own 1964 recording, now hiding discreetly as discs 16 and 17 in Sony’s bargain 22 CD box Works of Igor Stravinsky . This set is a must-have for any Stravinsky collector, but the recording in this set is not to be confused with the mono 1953 Metropolitan Opera recording, now available on Naxos Historical.

As you would expect, the more recent Craft recording wins in terms of sound quality, but aside from the usual leathery-sounding oboes and some tape hiss Stravinsky’s recording still comes up sounding pretty good. The same goes for the orchestral playing, with Craft more slick, and often more adventurous and energetic in terms of tempi. Stravinsky comes in at just under 141 minutes for the whole opera to Craft’s 128. If I have a minor criticism of both, it is the level at which the harpsichord is set, especially in the Craft recording. Even listening on best-possible hi-fi, the level is arguably too low to hear much of what is being played, and in the recitatives and important card game scene it is easily covered by the voices. This is a tricky aspect of such a recording and may be a fairly accurate representation of what you would hear in a live performance, but it is a shame that detail and harmonic content is missed in some of these recitatives, and I found my ears straining somewhat. By the way, Stravinsky’s recording has some useful riffle sound effects which help the ‘cards’ imagery in that long recitative Duet scene with Tom and Shadow which are absent with Craft. The timps are also a bit boomy in the Naxos recording, such as at the end of Act 3 scene 1, but this is another minor caveat.

While we are dealing with negatives, there is an aspect of the singing which bothered me just a little throughout. Jayne West is a star as Anne Trulove, and I have no complaints about her gorgeously innocent performance. Her gently simple final Lullaby is guaranteed to raise a tear. I am also greatly in admiration of just about everyone else, but for me the principal male characters Tom Rakewell and Nick Shadow, and Father Trulove for that matter, lack vocal variety and therefore remain rather two-dimensional as characters. Tom and Nick both have a hard-edged projection to their voices which softens little, even when the pair of them are supposedly in the hushed atmosphere of the dark and mysterious graveyard. John Cheek as Nick Shadow gives pretty much 110 % of his rich and powerful bass at all times, and comes across as more of an irresistible force than menacing presence. To be fair, Jon Garrison does give us some admirable restraint once he has been struck mad by Nick, and in any case this whole subject might in fact be less of a problem that you might imagine. I don’t wish to put anyone off with these comments - we’re talking bargain purchase territory after all. It is in the nature of Stravinsky’s vocal writing that there is almost always a certain amount of ‘distance’ between what might be expected to develop as a fully rounded theatrical character and the intentional neo-classical or even neo-baroque purity of the music. The Rake’s Progress is a wonderful score, ranging from Broadway musical corn very much to the heights of human expressiveness. There is always more than enough going on to keep us from worrying if this or that line might have been given marginally more colour or inflection. What I really do like about all of the solo vocalists is how clearly they articulate the all-important text, and while there is no libretto in the booklet for this release, you shouldn’t really need it.

With an American cast, you might also wonder if the accents of the singers might intrude to scandalise European sensibilities. This is not often the case, though there are one or two ‘The Waltons’ moments, such as when Trulove calls Anne, Anne! at the end of the Quietly, night aria, Act 1 Scene 3. The choir does very well and are stylishly punchy, but the satellite characters do leap out somewhat, and this is a mixed blessing on occasion. Shirley Love is very wobbly as Mother Goose, though this could easily be intentional. Wendy White begins imperious and perfectly and appropriately unsympathetic as the spoiled Baba the Turk, but mellows nicely for the You love him, seek to set him right scene. I was also glad to hear the smashing of crockery in her tiff with Tom in Act 2 is every bit as juicy as in Stravinsky’s 1964 version. Melvin Lowery’s Sellem is an energetic NYC auctioneer. The brief Keeper’s solo is alas unmemorable, but the part was never likely to steal the show.

There are numerous recordings of The Rake’s Progress around these days, and I still have an affection for the Decca recording with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Ricardo Chailly, though Cathryn Pope’s Anne Trulove leaves a bit of a beige gap in an otherwise strong team of soloists. If it’s the best of the best of modern recording you are looking for at any price, then the critics seem fairly universal in praise of Kent Nagano’s 1995 Lyons Opera recording on Erato, though I don’t have this to hand for comparison. As far as the Sony Box/Naxos competition goes you can easily accommodate both - Stravinsky having a bit more unruly bite and grit, Craft winning in terms of refinement but at the same time losing out in terms of pithy character. What Craft does manage is to bring out the sheer wit in several little moments of Stravinsky’s score - more so than the composer himself did. I laughed out loud in a few places which might not have been intentional, but you simply must find fun in all those corners and cadences - vocal and tonal - which Stravinsky throws in to disarm us and allow us up for air in this most human and intense of dramas.

The Rake’s Progress holds a fascination for us in the 21st century, in the first place as a ‘classic’ and iconic work from one of the last century’s greatest composers, but also as one in possession of the magical tensions one of music’s turning points. In the late 1940s and early 1950s there was a wind of change, many of the protagonists of which both held Stravinsky as a respected statesman of contemporary music making, but who also already knew his style and idiom, and were more than prepared to see the new opera as rather old hat. The opera stands at the cusp of this transition in Stravinsky’s work, between the development or recycling of old formulae, and the decision whether or not to break new ground in order to compete with the new generation of composers. In the end, the intangible alchemy which was Stravinsky’s gift for creating remarkable music, combined in The Rake’s Progress with a penetrating insight into human nature and frailty, created a masterpiece which transcended and survived all of those internal and external musical revolutions. That we have such a direct link to Stravinsky’s living thoughts and intentions in Robert Craft and such a powerful performance makes this recording - even with its imperfections - as much a ‘must have’ as the composer’s own.

-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

FORMAT: All Formats
REGIONS: All Regions
PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9
LENGTH: Approx 154 Mins
SOUND: DTS 5.1 SURROUND / LPCM STEREO
SUBTITLES: English/French/German/Spanish/Italian/Dutch

"***** Under evocative Midwestern skies, Robert LePage radically reimagines Stravinsky's Hogarth-inspired classic for Belgium's premier opera house in 1950s Las Vegas, complete with neon-lit fairgrounds and film-set bar-room brawls. The setting is revelatory, the vision spectacular. Kazushi Ono draws vibrancy and insight from his Belgian band, cranking the American twangs and classical borrowings of Stravinsky's punchy score. The indolent Rake, an effortlessly Hogarthian Andrew Kennedy in cowboy boots and excellent voice, is vocally and dramatically matched by Willian Shimmell's dark, full-bodied Nick Shadow. A must-see." -- Sarah Urwin Jones, The Times, January 19, 2008 [reviewing the standard DVD version]

FORMAT: All Formats
REGIONS: All Regions
PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9
LENGTH: Approx 154 Mins
SOUND: DTS 5.1 SURROUND / LPCM STEREO
SUBTITLES: English/French/German/Spanish/Italian/Dutch

"***** Under evocative Midwestern skies, Robert LePage radically reimagines Stravinsky's Hogarth-inspired classic for Belgium's premier opera house in 1950s Las Vegas, complete with neon-lit fairgrounds and film-set bar-room brawls. The setting is revelatory, the vision spectacular. Kazushi Ono draws vibrancy and insight from his Belgian band, cranking the American twangs and classical borrowings of Stravinsky's punchy score. The indolent Rake, an effortlessly Hogarthian Andrew Kennedy in cowboy boots and excellent voice, is vocally and dramatically matched by Willian Shimmell's dark, full-bodied Nick Shadow. A must-see." -- Sarah Urwin Jones, The Times, January 19, 2008

Click here for all of Robert Craft's recordings on Naxos

Considered the most 'Russian'of Stravinsky' major works, the origin of the Firebird lies in the impresario Sergey Dyagilev' cost-cutting decision to concentrate on ballet, rather than opera.

Robert Craft's authority as a Stravinsky conductor is unquestionable, and it's good to see his Koch recordings reappearing with important individual items from his earlier Musicmasters series. All were very well engineered and are certainly worth hearing. Between the two series I don't know if he has done everything, but he's pretty close, and there are some duplications. For example, this recording of Symphony of Psalms comes from the Koch sessions. It is very beautifully played, though not quite ideally sung by a chorus that sounds a bit small for the work (as I noted on its original issue). Craft's previous recording was a bit quicker overall, particularly in the last movement, but this one is actually closer to the tempos in Stravinsky's own stereo version.


And this, in a nutshell, is the point: when it comes to accuracy of execution instrumentally, Craft is unassailable. Vocally, it's more a question of taste and opportunity. For example, in the Cantata nobody beats tenor Jan Kobow's performance on Harmonia Mundi, a disc that also contains arguably the best-sung version of the Mass. Ancerl also offers superb interpretations of these two works, plus Symphony of Psalms, all on Supraphon. In the final analysis, it's nice to have such a wealth of choice, particularly in works once thought to be forbidding, such as the Cantata. The Three Russian Sacred Choruses are very minor pieces, as is Babel, Stravinsky's contribution to Nathaniel Shilkret's 1943 Genesis Suite (available on EMI). Craft is incorrect, by the way, in claiming in his notes that Babel was the suite's concluding section: it was The Covenant, by Ernest Toch. [11/3/2006]
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

No one plays Stravinsky's neo-classical works better than Robert Craft. In the Symphony in C he captures the flow of the piece perfectly, understanding that the music's wistful innocence and rhythmic freshness depends far more on precision of execution than on interpretive point-making. The Symphony in Three Movements packs a nice, hefty punch in its outer movements, and the important harp part is very well balanced in the central Andante.

Neither Dumbarton Oaks nor the Octet strikes me as top-notch Stravinsky, though judging from his notes Craft would disagree. In any case, these are wholly winning performances, totally free of artifice. Dumbarton Oaks in particular does not sound like bad Bach, but comes across as energetic and vital, the rhythmic drive of its outer movements never turning mechanical. The fine sonics remain remarkably consistent despite the various recording locations and dates. Highly recommended.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

This disc was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Award for "Best Classical Engineered Recording."
This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.