Ivan (not to be confused with Adam) Fischer has a sensitive touch. His Petrushka is deft and charming, full of incident, but discreet, some may feel too discreet—a sleeveful of surprises no sooner materialized than vanished again. His heart is backstage with our hapless wooden hero, far from the public bustle, the colour and fun of the fair. He has a real feeling for the shadow and stillness of these sad empty rooms: he instinctively knows just how long to hold a pause, a silence; his rubatos are the equivalent of a wink, a shrug of the shoulder, just enough to raise a smile. And he vividly points up the little melodramas: the arresting transition to the Blackamoor episode, for instance, beautifully defused later with the Ballerina's waltz. The big set pieces—the brilliant fairground sideshows—are more flamboyantly served by the likes of Bernstein (CBS—at mid price) and the superbly recorded Rattle (EMI). Again Fischer will occasionally pull off a fleeting surprise like his 'performing bear' dancing to the tune of a wonderfully strident gipsy clarinet; but in general his keen-edged precision is inclined to inhibit spontaneity—I'm talking about complete rhythmic abandon such as makes the gaudy Bernstein so perennially infectious.
Fischer's Firebird suite is similarly blessed and deprived, better in the mellifluous ''Round dance of the Princesses'' and haunting bassoon-caressed ''Lullaby'' than the bony, feverish music of Kaschei's demonic followers, brilliantly though Stravinsky's whirling clarinets and flashing piccolo are projected in Hungaroton's forward and detailed recording. This Budapest Festival Orchestra is quite an ensemble, strong in all departments but generously endowed in the woodwind. As the solo bassoon fades into 'complete darkness' in readiness for the solo horn (beautiful) and Stravinsky's ensuing apotheosis, the effect is very lovely—though of course Rattle has spoiled us forever with a quite unbelievable ppp in his inspired EMI account of the complete ballet ((CD) CDC7 49178-2, 4/89).'