Major players in the recording world currently shy away from repertoire like this, affording an opportunity for the less ‘obvious’ to make their mark. And how refreshingly unobvious the results are here – an impressive showcase for Oregon and its long-time music director, but in no way merely a virtuoso showpiece Rite. Rather it is, in the manner of Stravinsky’s own Columbia Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Monteux’s Paris Rites, a very balletic one, with vivid projection of the inner voices (principally woodwinds) and judiciously selective presentation of the often too dominant outer ones (the brass and percussion). But is it competitive?
Not quite. DePreist ignores most of the tricks which the performing tradition of this piece has acquired over the decades, but his gift for directness, and concern for balance, do, in the final analysis, short-change us on the score’s capacity for strangeness and savagery. More colour and shape in the string playing would have helped that strangeness, and a degree more overall abandon, the savagery. Abandon is there in the dances that round off both parts, but only there in moderation before them (caution is also a problem in the ‘Infernal Dance’ from the Firebird). On a technical level, the playing is mostly very secure – the second trumpet’s misreading at one bar before fig 85 (track 9, 1'45) in the Rite is untypical – and the engineers relay the orchestra in a way that ideally combines concert-hall realism with the necessary audio-only presence and sharp focus. Despite the reser- vations, a quality product