Petrouchka / Rite of Spring

Stravinsky (Artist), Stokowski (Artist), Phl (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 6, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B00000E6PA
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560,548 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 1929 World Premiere Recording of THE RITE OF SPRING, March 28, 2005

By 

A. Andersen (Bellows Falls, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Petrouchka / Rite of Spring (Audio CD)

This was the first recording of the classic Stravinsky ballet score - LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS (THE RITE OF SPRING), released on a series of 12 inch 78 rpm discs. I was curious about it, both from an historical perspective and because I consider his performance of the truncated score in Disney's FANTASIA to be one of two favorite performances (the other is Pierre Monteux's 1949 recording).

This is a great surprise for Stokowski's initial interpretation is quite different - it is far slower than the 1939 interpretation (for the 1940 film release) and the dynamics are also quite different. It is as if two completely different conductors interpreted the work. As such it is a fascinating companion piece to the FANTASIA soundtrack performance.

The discs are in amazing condition, considering their age. Sound is tinny but the remastering does bring out some otherwise previously inaudible bass lines. A real must-have for fans of the Stravinsky ballet.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Af very fortunate and winner first release of the Rite!, July 4, 2006

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Petrouchka / Rite of Spring (Audio CD)

The chivalrously charm and magnetic charisma of Leopold Stokowski,joined forces with a major talent and eloquent orchestral coloratura, that blended, allowed him to create an atmosphere of aristocrat presence on the podium. Stokowski represented in those years what two decades ago Ricardo Muti on the stage.

Stokowski established a very hard record to equal and obviously to surpass; having premiered countless works all around the world. His fertile imagination and kaleidoscopic fantasy nourished and expanded still more pages of the Russian repertoire (Pictures at exhibition) as well as the pages of the French repertoire. He directed as a painter; those musical canvas deserved him a memorable place among the new generations of directors.

So given the circumstances, you should not miss Stokowski illuminated the score in the case of Stravinsky, a composer eminently visual and sensually suggestive. It `s not a fortuitous event his notable contributions with Walt Disney in Fantasy in 1942. Thanks to him many people who never before was interested in the music as artistic expression was fortunately engaged and seduced. Besides he sew the necessity to enlarge the list of orchestras around USA; and being a sort of musical Ambassador many director immigrants found a secure place along these raising ensembles.

Stokowski enriched the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra for Eugene Ormandy continued this effort, but also he made notable contributions for the orchestral repertoire, transcribing many Bach works.

This album is a striking evidence of what a talented director can do with an incipient orchestra, avid to learn and experience.

Pétrouhka is vivid, fresh and imaginative and his version of The Rite of Spring describes as a Picasso painting, multiple, remarkable and even significant issues nestled beneath the score. In this sense, this album is not only a transcendental historical reference, but also a set to collect because it retakes a vision that has been vanished due, nowadays the objectivity seems to have substituted the Dionysian fantasy, distorting seriously the place of Stravinsky in the music.

Absolutely recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the review in Gramophone, February 16, 2006

By 

Record Collector (Mons, Belgium) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Petrouchka / Rite of Spring (Audio CD)

The first three recordings of The Rite took place within months of each other. Stravinsky himself led the field in a May 1929 performance with the Strarum Orchestra for Columbia, then Monteux and an unnamed Paris orchestra quickly followed with an HMV recording, and finally Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra entered the fray for RCA Victor in September 1929 (their recording was completed in March 1930). It is of great interest to have early versions by the composer and by the man who conducted the first performance, but in terms of playing and sound-quality Stokowski's version (the only one he made of the ballet) wins by a mile. The 78-rpm technique of recording in four-minute takes meant that there were occasional lapses which had to be accepted. By and large, however, the playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra is astonishingly assured in a work which must have presented new and formidable technical problems. Stokowski's interpretation is very exciting: as ever, he seems to make a few adjustments to the score, but these are not too offensive in the context of a reading which offers so much colour, atmosphere and drama.

His 1937 account of Petrushka was also the third version of the complete ballet to be recorded. Here tempos are fast, the playing brilliant and the music often driven hard, to great effect.