Customer Reviews

Stravinsky: The Firebird (Complete Ballet); Fireworks; Song of the Nightingale

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There is only one word to describe Dorati's recording of The Firebird, definitive. No one before or since has managed to combine the delicate almost impressionist passages of the score with the violence of the infernal dance to such tremendous effect. Stravinsky's ground breaking score is treated with all the sensitivity and respect that it demands, yet Dorati never seems overwhelmed by it as many other interpreters seem to be, the conductors grip on the music is palpable, but this never prevents the music from breathing freely. Much has been made of the sound quality of the CD issue, for me this was never a problem. I listened to this CD on my Musical Fidelity CD Player fed through Conrad-Johnson amplifcation to Sonus Faber Speakers or Grado headphones. This system is very revealing of poor sound quality and I honestly felt that the Performance venue (Walthamstow Town Hall outside London) was very well captured, although their was some hardness to the upper midrange, compared to my original SR-1 Mercury LP pressing (Played on a Linn LP12), that is to be expected with CD's, it's a fault of the format rather than Bob Fine's recording or Wilma Cosart Fine's remastering. I'm just left to wonder what an SACD version would sound like. Over to you Wilma :)

This one is a must-have !! Dorati signed here an all-times classic ! For those who don't like Stravinsky, I can only recommend to rediscover his music with this CD. The famed transparency of Stravinsky's music appears here in Cinemascope. And all the pieces are a pleasure to listen to. A treasurable recording.

And contrarily to the bashing done below, this remastering, directly from the original Ampex tape recorder, through the original Wetrex amps, without any compression (probably the "terrible mixing" the guy talks about), sounds INCREDIBLY dynamic and transparent (although there is some tape hiss at the beginning). Probably this guy doesn't know that the dynamics of the original tape is far superior to the 96 dB of a CD. In this remastering, the engineers decided not to use any compression, and the result is nothing short of exceptionnal in naturalness and dynamics. But to benefit from the high quality of this sound, one must own excellent hifi components. In fact, it's one of my test discs for hifi component's evaluation.

The Golden Age

Several years ago I bought out the entire LP collection of a classical radio station that was going out-of-business. Among the ten thousand or so items were several dozen Mercury Living Presence LPs. Now, radio stations do not treat LPs with kid gloves. They had all seen use and abuse. None-the-less, they were generally spectacular examples of the Golden Age of the LP before the switch over to Dolby, transistors and a clutter of close-up microphones that capture every hum and page-turn, but loose the hall and the ensemble.

Yesterday evening my wife was out with the kids, so I decided to pull out the Dorati Firebird with the LSO. I am talking about the CD, now. I gave it a listen over a very accurate modern 7-channel system with a gaggle of classic SONY APM22 ES square aluminum driver-based speakers. It sounded wonderful. Everything was precisely in its place acoustically and the performance itself was stunning, but somehow it just did not send shivers down my spine.

So I fired up my Big Old Tube rig from the 1950s to 70s: Technics Q-3, Shure V15 Type III, Dyna PAS-3x and Dyna Stereo 70 all feeding custom-built loudspeakers with unpronounceable European woofers and HUGE Heil AMT tweeters.

First the lead-in groove with a few crackles-- Then wondrous old tube hiss from the Mercury mixing console is layered in. Then the low rumbling introductory section, the first blat of brass and, yes!, genuine musical shivers!

What I find most impressive about this Mercury recording is how well it suites Dorati's performance. They are both bold enough for Stravinsky's dramatic magic to shine through, but also very well thought-out. This is no mean trick! It is a bit of a mystery how Dorati was able to combine such passion and control. It is also a bit of a mystery how the Mercury team was able to capture such musical and stage detail with only three microphones. BUT the fact that succeeded so spectacularly puts the lie to the idea that arrays of close-up microphones are anything more than an editing convenience to reduce production costs.

This is a swirling surging stereo-rama extravaganza of sonic and musical brilliance complete with all the shivers. The music comes at you from every point across the stage and from every depth at one moment or another during the performance. The only thing the recording does not catch the performers doing is levitation.

Though EPIC and CBS produced some fine recording, I really wish Szell and Bruno Walter had recorded for Mercury. Szell on Mercury! Can you imagine?!

Well, getting back to my evening without the kids-- Did I mention that I also fed the Output from the Dyna PAS3x preamplifier into my PC as I was listening on the Big Old Tube stereo? Well, I did and caught an MP3 copy at 256K VBR through Diamond Cut's DC7. I put this on a Sansa e250 along with MP3s made from the CD and another set from the SACD, grabbed a pair of handy Ultimate Ears in-ear headphones and headed out to walk the dogs.

The moon was almost full and the air had that special early spring mix of crispness and mold spores. As I steered the dogs though a wooded area on the north bank of the James River, I listened first to the LP version, then the CD and then the SACD. No, I was not hearing the MP3 encoding! The original material came though fine at this bit rate, thank you!

After about half-an-hour the CD was out of the race and it was between the LP and the SACD. AND I have to say that the SACD sounded far better than the LP, but in the end I wound up listening to entire performance though again using the MP3s made from the LP. It was just easier for me to focus on Stravinsky's great ideas in this format. Perhaps the small amount of distortion served to keep me more attentive. I am not sure. Like so many other things in this life, pleasure is a mystery.

PS. DO not hesitate to buy this performance in ANY format. It is head-and-shoulders above most others and a fine (and FUN) experience purely on its own terms.

The market proposes you a lot of worthable versions , but in in my personal view , there are three really overwhelming . And this is one of them . The other two are a superb version of Fricsay from the fifties and the another is Ansermet Suisse Romande of the fifties too .
This recording has a fierce and such span sense unique . The Minneapolis percussionists are ADMIRABLE .
Dorati made a glorious tour de force and the strings play with such level of vitality , magnetism and comittment as you will be surprised with such intensity level .

One of the first ballet scores that Stravinsky did, it is and always will be a classic. It completely epitomizes the Russian tale of a prince who comes across an enchanted garden, recieves help from a beautiful bird, and saves a princess from the evil sorcorer Kachei. This particular album is wonderful because it has the full score which includes my favourite song,The dance of the Princesses. You must own this if you love classical or neo-classical music.

These performances, all with the LSO, are classics and deservedly so. This very dynamic performance of the complete Firebird ballet emphasizes sharpness of accent, rhythmic drive and a dazzling clarity of texture without slighting the sensuous colors of the music. In doing so, Dorati links the Firebird with the more overtly modernistic music of Petrushka and the Rite of Spring that followed in its wake, as opposed to emphasizing either its Debussy or Rimski-Korsakov like aspects. As for the suite from the Song of the Nightingale, Dorati's performance is somewhat less stately and majestic sounding than Reiner's classic account on RCA (which the composer himself specifically praised), emphasizing instead the music's wit and humor. The shorter pieces are delectable tidbits. A required purchase for lovers of 20th century music.

You should have this older London issue to supplement the superb remakes Dorati made in Detroit of this material. There are differences and similarities, and the comparisons are fascinating.

The most interesting is hearing how Dorati could take two stylistically disparate orchestras and make compelling and original presentations of the same material!

Wilma Cozart did a top-flight job on this rehab of her own sessions...but I prefer it on vinyl where the LSO's gut 'n' gloss hit you like it would in the dance theatre...the immediacy is that much greater.

Nevertheless, just buy this and revel in it.

I can only second the other reviewers' enthusiasm for this sparkling "Firebird," which is the epitome of French-style ballet conducting, along with Ansermet's performance, as opposed to Gergiev's more weighty, overtly emotional Russian style. The inner detail captured by Wilma Cozart Fine, Mercury's famous pioneering engineer, still sounds remarkable.

But I also agree with Mitchell Lee when he says that the CD release doesn't match the atmosphere and magic of the original LPs. I know this is a frequent complaint from older audiophiles, but in this case there's evidence that digital remastering has made the already bright high frequencies a little stinging on the ear -- at least my ears. That's the only blemish on this impeccable recording job, and perhaps the newer sACD remastering has solved the problem. Let's hope.

This 1959 performance was one of my first Stravinsky acquisitions forty years ago. It was absolutely thrilling then, and its "Living Presence" sound is better still on CD.

Dorati outdoes the composer's own version. And I am one who generally prefers Stravinsky's own versions for their tempo and drive (but not for their sonics!).

The Finale has no sensitivity, eroticism, or magic. Just listen to the solo hornist couched in quivering strings in Dutoit's Montreal band, or Stravinsky's hornist with the Columbia Symphony--and you will find yourself wallowing in infinitely more poetic readings. Stravinsky captures much more of the "avian" character of the score by not allowing the lovely chattering woodwinds to get engulfed, even in the Infernal Dance and Finale which--under Dorati--sound more like weightlifting or cage-fighting "bump" music. Dutoit is similarly superior in bringing out much more of the half-lit sensuality of the score--especially in the early sections--and makes Dorati sound dull in comparison. Shouldn't one ask for more, great Mercury recording notwithstanding? .