Est 1923

Stravinsky Ballets

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Igor Stravinsky

Label: Duo

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 151

Mastering:

ADD

Catalogue Number: 438 350-2PM2

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(The) Rite of Spring, '(Le) sacre du printemps' Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Bernard Haitink, Conductor
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
London Philharmonic Orchestra
(The) Firebird, '(L')oiseau de feu' Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Bernard Haitink, Conductor
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Petrushka Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Bernard Haitink, Conductor
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Apollon musagète Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Igor Markevitch, Conductor
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
London Symphony Orchestra
Haitink's share is best represented by The Firebird—the first half especially—where his impressive sleight of hand dazzles us with the full range of Stravinsky's magical orchestration. But in the eleventh section, ''Kastchei's guardian monsters and capture of Ivan Tsarevich'', the tension begins to flag and memories of Dorati and the LSO further compound one's dissatisfaction. Petrushka is paraded in his 1911 'original' guise which would have been a real bonus had the performance sparkled more, but Haitink's thoughtful exegesis, although undeniably sympathetic and full of tender phrasing, has little of the fairground (or even theatre) about it. The Rite is better, but still not quite on target; there are occasional imprecisions and detail is too often shielded by blurting brass or thundering volleys of percussion. It needn't be this way, as Mata, Davis, Bour, Monteux, Stravinsky and Markevitch have so successfully proved. And reference to Markevitch brings me to the set's undoubted high-spot, a lovingly tended Apollon musagete, warm, buoyant and profoundly balletic, even though the coda is a little over-cautious. This alone has been ''Digitalized by Bitstream'', and sounds all the better for it, whereas Haitink's LPO strings are occasionally coarse-grained.'

Stravinsky Ballets

(The) Rite of Spring, '(Le) sacre du printemps'

(The) Firebird, '(L')oiseau de feu'

Petrushka

Apollon musagète

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