Title : Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: Petrouchka/ Le Sacre du Printemps
Author : Stravinsky, Igor
Release Date : 19901025
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $11.98
Amazon.com Price : $11.57
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Editorial Reviews : Whatever the limitations of Stravinsky's baton technique, no one else on disc conjures the same bustling excitement at the outset of Petrouchka. Overlapping, polyrhythmic textures in Petrouchka and in Le Sacre du Printemps come off with Mozartian lucidity, Mendelssonian lightness, and, well, Stravinsky-esque rhythmic exactitude (notwithstanding a few hesitant entrances). The clarity partly stems from the composer's use of his leaner revised scores, helped by close-up, analytical mike work by CBS. There are, of course, slicker, more sonically opulent versions of these 20th century landmarks. And then there are Stravinsky's. --Jed Distler
Buyer Reviews : It seems absurd to me, having been born in the last quarter of the Twentieth Century, that anyone once thought Stravinsky's music to be unlyrical or ugly. What a testimony to the changing cultural tides and bigotries of the past that the premiere of Petrushka was met with a near riot of indignance. Both pieces on this disc are so free and lovely that I find it hard to imagine them inspiring anything but awe in an audience.
For my money, Petrushka has some of the most beautiful music ever written--just check out 2:44 in the Dance of the Nursemaids if you don't believe me. Stravinsky, for me at least, is the great court jester of the Twentieth Century. This self-deprecating, jolly music called Petrushka is nothing if not a celebration of life despite all of the horrors of living in the bloodiest century ever.
Le Sacre du printemps is every bit as raucous, though much more menacing than Petrushka. If you're like me, you first encountered this gem in the first Fantasia movie. I have therefore had to always battle the ideas of dinosaurs and volcanoes that this music inspires in my mind. Stravinsky's ideas are much more compelling and gruesome.
The strength of this music is wrapped inseparably with Stravinsky's vision of it. His conducting brings about much more clarity than I have heard from any conductor since. One feels the soul of the composer in the man's conducting.
As such, I give my full recommendation to these great recordings. This is possibly the best single disc of Stravinsky's music available.
