Customer Reviews

Stravinsky - Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) / Symphonies D'Instrument Vent / Boulez, London Symphony Orchestra

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

 

 

Boulez is not the best conductor of this work, notwithstanding his friendship with Strravinsky. To be sure, he can conduct "Le Sacre" with the steely precision of a pianola roll; he's a past master at awkward rhythms and overcoming hideous performance difficulties (and this work is full of both).

His interpretation here is accurate but too sedate for me. It is even more gentlemanly than his renderings of the early 1970s. Le Sacre is raw and primitive and screams out for passion which Boulez fails to lend it.

It might sound good the first time you hear it; the orchestra is up to scratch; the climaxes are nicely loud and it moves on in its merry, noisy way. There are worse interpretations. But as recorded performances go, it is not one that bears repeated audition.

He does much better with the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, a more formal neo-classical work that comes across better for the conductor not attempting to get passionate about it.

It is possible that at times in their lives, Boulez and Stravinsky might have coincided in their musical objectives but there really is nothing akin about Boulez at any time and the Stravinsky who wrote this work. If the studio insisted on a Boulez recording, they might have chosen his Varese interpretations - utterly competent - and left Le Sacre du Printemps to a more passionate interpreter.

Despite the negative feedback on this selection already, I would have to disagree with most of it. While parts of it are slower than most CD recordings from other conductors, it really isn't THAT much slower than what's written in the score. Something else I noticed here and there were some somewhat drastic tempi changes, speeding up or slowing down.
However, despite these downsides, if you are an aspiring composer/orchestrator/musician/music aficionado, I highly suggest this DVD. Especially if you watch this with the score and can follow along instrument entrances, etc.
The quality of the video and the sound is quite good as well. So if tempo changes here and there and a slightly slower overall tempo doesn't bother you very much, definatley add this to your collection.

First off I would like to compliment Pierre Boulez in his wonderful rendition of Le Sacre du Printemps. True there is no ballet in this performance but one cannot simply make a ballet performance of this monumental work. If you notice the orchestra takes up the whole entire stage and in order to perform this in ballet form, you would need a huge huge pit. But about Boulez's interpretation.. it is great. The tempos are just right. The tempos are not too slow or too fast. Considering the fact that he himself was a friend of Stravinsky's and was counselled by him in this work he does this work well. The orchestra is great and performs the work wonderfully. All in all a very good dvd.

Impossible to qualify properly this "Massacre du Printemps" signed by Monsieur Boulez.Just watch some musicians semblances in the orchestra;the most phlegmatic british performer simply can not be impassible in face of this visceratical masterpiece.Of course,technical accuracy is an essential requirement but not the only one!.I'm so sorry because I don't know english enough to describe how lazy,boring is this.Nonetheless,very fine picture and sound;one of the best I purchase on DVD.

If they make this one for a DVD production, they have to make it
with Ballet. It is like they make a opera DVD production
with only orchestra. I would recommend that you
stick to your CD or LP collection and wait until
(Orchestra + Ballet) DVD production comes out.

This is an amazing DVD. The LSO proves that is is one of the best orchestras, if not THE best orchestra on the planet. Worth the price of the disc for the Rite alone.

You may recall the Nonesuch recorded vinyl of Maitre Boulez,with the Cleveland Orchestra I beleive. It was pristine,immaculate,clean,and precise,with no sacrifice of the barbarity,irrational transgressivness this score retains/contains. Boulez pushes your head through a primieval/petrified forest, allowing one to see the details, the encrusted,thorny textures, and instrumental colours of Mother Russia, as opposed to Bernstein's more birdseye view from the heights traversing the terrain,warp speed in a 2001 Space module. At long last this magnificence is here for one to select within the convenience of one's abode, how many years has this technology takened, 30 years.? Well it never was available for viewing. And still there is nothing on VHS or DVD of Boulez as conductor. The Salzberg Fest with Boulez and the Vienna Philharmonic is no longer available. The staple/pillar of modernity, the Symphonies for Winds as well is here for for pedagogical value, the mosaic structure, of a succession of colours,first woodwinds then brass then particles of flute then clarinet duets, and trios. Stravinsky learned this linear richness from Mozart the Trio from the G minor Symphony comes to mind.This work is dedicated to the death of Claude Debussy, in a reverent manner,more a hommage to another Maitre of timbral dimension.