This two-CD set calls itself ‘The Mono Years 1952-55’ to distinguish the recordings from those Stravinsky made in the following decade, of the same repertoire – in stereo – gathered together by Sony Classical for its 22-disc Stravinsky Edition (7/91) and subsequent reissues (the Octet is the only piece here Stravinsky didn’t re-record in stereo). The booklet-notes tell us that the Cleveland was Stravinsky’s favourite American orchestra – presumably after Szell arrived in 1946 to turn it into a class act – and the four orchestral works here benefit from a refinement of tone and elegance of manner not equalled by the Columbia and CBC Symphony Orchestras in the stereo remakes. To be fair, the more closely miked strings and woodwinds of the stereo recordings, though undeniably vivid, and occasionally better at profiling leading thematic lines, could be unkind to string tone. And given the effortlessness with which many orchestras nowadays handle the difficulties of a Stravinsky score, it must be said that not everything in these Cleveland sessions speaks with the poetry of precision (one imagines brief moments provoking at least a grimace from Szell). As to the Pulcinella vocalists, the choice of bass in the stereo remake (Donald Gramm) was a much happier one.
Here or there in Cleveland, you will find slightly faster or slower tempos, some of the slower ones allowing more expressive shaping of song (The Fairy’s Kiss) or clearer exposition of intricate ingenuity (the first movement of the Symphony in C). I am puzzled by the graceless (even grotesque) plod for the fiancee’s short solo variation in The Fairy’s Kiss ‘Pas de deux’ (track 6), but the more flowing tempo for the ballet’s haunting final ‘Berceuse’ is a definite plus; as are the chamber items (The Soldier’s Tale and the Octet), recorded on consecutive days in January 1954 with the cream of New York’s players, and sounding like Stravinsky’s happiest studio sessions. Quite apart from the expertise of the playing, and the vitality of the direction, the pleasure these musicians took in two of Stravinsky’s wittiest scores is communicated so vividly that one completely forgets the source is mono.'