Recordings of Stravinsky continue to pour out: these two ballets follow on from three others on the earlier Hyperion release with the same cast (12/09). What’s immediately apparent when playing Stravinsky’s own recordings followed by the new ones is – obviously – the great improvement in recorded sound since the mid-1960s. Further, there is little scope for conductors to diverge from the master’s interpretations because his instructions were always so precise.

The welcome curiosity here is Scènes de ballet, with few recordings. Stravinsky called it “a period piece, a portrait of Broadway in the last years of the war” and he found the $5,000 fee very acceptable. The show ran for 183 performances but Stravinsky was annoyed that there were cuts and he famously refused any reorchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett. The score is attractive American-period Stravinsky before he moved towards serial techniques. Apart from the vivid sound quality, the balance in the new recording is better with details such as the piano much clearer.

The Fairy’s Kiss goes back to 1928, with Stravinsky’s neo-classical borrowing techniques firmly entrenched, and this time it’s Tchaikovsky. Stravinsky adapted songs and piano pieces and composed some numbers himself. This passionate liaison is so integrated that it’s impossible to tell which was which, and Stravinsky couldn’t always remember himself. Without the dance, The Fairy’s Kiss is at times fairly low density and the ending seems drawn out. But overall this is an attractive coupling in Hyperion’s admirable ballet series, produced with its usual finesse.