Stravinsky: Les Noces / Mass ~ Bernstein [Import]

Stravinsky (Composer), Bernstein (Conductor), English Bach Festival Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: English Bach Festival Orchestra
• Conductor: Bernstein
• Composer: Stravinsky
• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Dg Imports
• ASIN: B000001G8Y
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,635 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Svadebka: First Tableau

2. Svadebka: Second Tableau

3. Svadebka: Third Tableau

4. Svadebka: Fourth Tableau

5. Mass: Kyrie

6. Mass: Gloria

7. Mass: Credo

8. Mass: Sanctus

9. Mass: Agnus Dei

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect marriage of conductor and piece, January 9, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stravinsky: Les Noces / Mass ~ Bernstein (Audio CD)

For Leonard Bernstein, that historically histrionic maestro, to turn in a performance which is at once entirely idiomatic and faithful to the inspirations of the piece, and entirely in character for himself as an artist, is an accomplishment of the first order. Those in search of a brilliant, well-recorded performance of this supreme masterwork could scarcely do better than this mid-priced recording in DG's 20th Century Classics line. Bernstein's besetting passion for extrovert, razor-sharp percussion ensemble is here indulged in its ripest form, yet entirely contained within the conception of the work. The singing, in both works, is incandescent. No sonorous juxtaposition, no rhythmic filigree passes without intelligent remark and the entire piece blazes forth to a coda of rapt benediction. To this listener's ears, who first came to the work through the Bernstein performance, even the composer's own star-studded recording (Copland and Barber, among others, performed as pianists) seems tame. One hears origins of many of Bernstein's own compositional patterns in this work; compare the opening of Les Noces with that of Bernstein's Mass. Bernstein as composer shared Stravinsky's fondness for jazzy, cell-like piano figures and gives them full voice as conductor. There is also of course the unceasing air-raid of the percussion. After the searing attack that is Les Noces, the unadorned Mass is monastic by comparison. Intelligence and care grace each phrase and the singing of the Trinity Boys' Choir exposes the piece with anatomical precision. However, in Bernstein's hands the ritual, mechanistic elements combine into a graceful, pious wonder. The two pieces, taken together in these performances, are a virtual storyboard of Bernstein's compositional career and here, as conductor, he glories in them as will any listener congenial to Stravinsky's distinct gifts.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Stravinsky's Best Foot Forward, December 15, 2000

By 

Karl Henning "Composer & Clarinetist" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stravinsky: Les Noces / Mass ~ Bernstein (Audio CD)

This performance of "Svadebka (Les noces)" will do as an introduction for the novitiate to the piece, but has too little precision to do Stravinsky's score justice. This is one of Stravinsky's under-performed and underappreciated scores; there is wonderful rhythmic vitality and instrumental ingenuity in the score, but the effect of both these is a little blurred on this disc.

For "Svadebka", listen instead to the new Craft recording (with the Symphony of Psalms and Threni).

For the Mass, listen instead to James O'Donnell's luminous recording on Hyperion (with Stravinsky's stunning Canticum Sacrum) or to Reinbert de Leeuw's recording on Polygram (with the Cantata and the Sacræ Cantiones after Gesualdo).

Both O'Donnell and de Leeuw do much better at presenting Stravinsky, than Bernstein, who could be a little self-absorbed.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent performance, awful Russian., May 16, 2001

By 

Hannes Neuenschwander "Hannes" (Barnstead, NH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stravinsky: Les Noces / Mass ~ Bernstein (Audio CD)

The musicianship on this disc is excellent. If you do not speak Russian you will enjoy the performance of Svadebka immensely. However, if you do speak Russian the atrocious pronunciation and intonation of the English Bach Festival Orchestra will grate on you. Unfortunately, until Gergiev decides to take a stab at this excellent work, Bernstein's recording will have to do.