A remarkably satisfying trio of performances, delicately executed and finely observed but by no means short on drama (sample the stormy lower strings 2'32'' into the Prologue, or “Berceuse de la tempete” in Baiser de la fee). In fact, I cannot think of any other conductor on disc who has so precisely gauged the colour, texture and overall ‘fit’ of Stravinsky’s supple orchestrations. David Atherton’s keen-eared direction inspires some extremely fine playing – from the first clarinet, for example, so beautifully accompanied at 6'25'' into the Prologue; or from the eloquent lead cello at 2'18'' into the Pas-de-deux’s Adagio. True, full string tuttis aren’t as lustrous as they might have been from one of the older European or American orchestras (the soaring string lines at 2'28'' in the same movement lack bloom) and the otherwise excellent recording tends to harden at climaxes, but these are trifling inadequacies in a work that calls mainly on the qualities that Atherton and his players supply in abundance – namely precision, transparency and a genuinely balletic mobility. Atmosphere too, I should say, especially the sensitive manner in which Atherton dovetails the end of the second scene with the beginning of the third.
Stravinsky’s other Tchaikovsky orchestrations make for obvious couplings and again, Atherton and his players (their professional partnership dates back to 1989) maximize the music’s wit and elegance. How nice to hear a clearly balanced piano in the Bluebird Pas-de-deux, while Mayumi Seiler’s excellent solo violin playing enhances Stravinsky’s rarely performed version of the Entr’acte. Here the recorded balance is first-rate and the effectiveness of Stravinsky’s tasteful – and highly characteristic – chamber reductions tellingly underlined.
The only other performances of the main work that I would turn to as alternatives to Atherton are Reiner’s of the Divertimento (an orchestral arrangement of movements from the Le baiser de la fee – RCA, 9/95), Mravinsky’s passionate but indifferently engineered live 1983 performance and the composer’s own stereo version (less alert than Atherton’s, but instrumentally more distinctive). However, collectors in search of Stravinsky’s Tchaikovsky ‘complete’ (as it were) could hardly do better than this new Virgin Classics release.'