Customer Reviews

Stravinsky in America

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Normally, I am not a fan of Michael Tilson Thomas' conducting, but this disc is truly wonderful. It provides the listener with a great introduction to the music that Stravinsky composed from 1941 up to his last purely orchestral work, the Variations in 1965. Among the gems found here, the Ode, the Scherzo a la Russe(sounding a lot like Petrouchka)Scenes de Ballet and Agon. And best of all, it shows that Stravinsky didn't dry up, as many think. A definite desert island disc.

Although I agree wholeheartedly with the other reviewers about the overall quality of this disc, its special value to me is for the recording of Agon. Recordings of this score have always been hard to find. This is the first CD Agon that I have enjoyed (having listened to previous recordings by the NYC Ballet Orchestra and a performance conducted by Mavrinsky). I could not ask for more. The detail and tempos seem very close to Stravinsky's own recording with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. My only complaint is that no snacking on favorite parts is allowed; the whole score is allotted one band. To my mind, Agon should be every bit as popular as, say, the Symphony of Psalms. The range of moods, textures and orchestral color is extraordinary. The work also has great wit, including one dance scored in comical imitation of an antique chamber ensemble.

The cover art for this CD is so charming that I feel a bit guilty criticizing the contents. It was a clever idea to sample Stravinsky's American output, which moved sharplyy from neo-classical style to Schoenbergian atonality. As a pivot we get Agon (1957), the major work on this CD, which sounds like Stravinsky from beginning to end but is deeply influenced by the 12-tone system. Agon isn't an easy listen, although it helps to have seen the ballet so that you can identify a visual with each of the ballet's 17 sections.

MTT's reading is at odds with the composer's own on Sony. Instead of being angular, spare, and acerbic, it is soft-grained and mellifluous. There's room for any number of approaches to such protean music, but MTT's account feels undernourished to me -- it needs more drive and less perky filigree. To make Agon sound like great music, you must feel that it's great to begin with.

MTT is most at home with the elegance of Scenes de ballet (1844), the second longest work on the album. Stravinsky, like Schoenberg, wanted to break into American pop culture, and Scenes was tailored for Billy Rose, impressario of the Aqucades water ballet, who wanted to make a splash in high culture with a revue called The Seven Lively Arts. Rose actually liked Stravinsky's score, and its tidy, melodicious neo-classical idiom goes down easily.

Stravinsky wrote in short form more than any other modern composer, and the rest of the program is filled out with eight tasty morsels, inclduing an arrangment of the Star Spangled Banner and a Circu Polka for Barnum & Bailey's dancing elephants. The last morsel, the Variations written in the memory of Aldous Huxley, is couched in the composer's msot difficut, terse late style, so I guess it isn't fair to call it tasty. But as a whole this CD certainly is, assuming you don't insist on a more pointed, acerbic style overall.

The unexpected harmonies in The Star Spangled Banner are interesting, but I don't really want the national anthem in my collection. Call me unpatriotic. (I'm not from South Carolina.) The Circus Polka is good clumsy fun. And the cover art is beguiling.

A comparable reading of Ode is included on the Chandos collection of Symphonies, to which I give FIVE stars.

Because Scherzo a la russe sounds like Petrushka, I prefer the version by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on Shadow Dances, which also contains the Concertino for Twelve Instruments. Orpheus play the Scherzo with a bigger :)

With its beautiful solo trumpet part, the Scenes de ballet are for me the high point of this CD. They're warm, accessible and reminiscent of the earlier, great ballets. I only wish the piano had a stronger presence at the very end.

Agon is an abstract grab bag full of wonderful colors and textures that occasionally devolves to minimalism. I'll keep listening, but so far I find it forgettable.

And who can tell me the closing Variations were not considered as a soundtrack for The Twilight Zone? Like a framed blank canvas the avant-garde painter calls art, serial music is for me an oxymoron. Call me provincial AND unpatriotic.

I know, I know. Not Helpful! But understand, I love much of Igor's music!

Stravinsky in America is a 1997 BMG Music recording starring the London Symphony Orchestra under direction Michael Tilson Thomas. Michael Steinberg has written the music notes. MTT I feel truly understands the mind and brilliance of Stravinsky. A very eclectic and interesting recording. I very much enjoyed it. Highly recommended indeed. 5/5.