Stravinsky: Pulcinella; The Fairy's Kiss

Igor Stravinsky (Composer), Robert Craft (Conductor), Diana Montague (Performer), London Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Philharmonia Orchestra of London (Orchestra), Robin Leggate (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Diana Montague, Robin Leggate
• Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra of London
• Conductor: Robert Craft
• Composer: Igor Stravinsky
• Audio CD (January 17, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B000CEVU4E
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #188,890 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two of Stravinsky's Most Popular Works, Beautifully Done, January 30, 2006

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J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stravinsky: Pulcinella; The Fairy's Kiss (Audio CD)

These mid-90s performances of Pulcinella and The Fairy's Kiss (Baiser de la Fée) conducted by Robert Craft were previously issued on Koch International with different couplings. But issuing them together is a good idea because they are two of Stravinsky's most tuneful, most easily assimilated works based as they are on music of earlier composers and they are given sensational readings here. (I will admit that these works are two of my very favorites by Stravinsky.) One immediately thinks of Pulcinella, based on music by Pergolesi and other early Italians, as being brash and witty, and The Fairy's Kiss as elegant. But in fact each of the works has both of those qualities albeit in somewhat different proportions. Pulcinella is often recognized by folks who don't otherwise know the work well when the 'Vivo' movement is played; that's the section with those sassy trombone smears and the mock-melancholic double bass figures. The Fairy's Kiss, on the other hand, taken as it is from Tchaikovsky themes, sounds in spots almost like an echt-Tchaikovsky ballet until Stravinsky does his witty things with meter and instrumentation. Throughout, though, this is music that could not have been written by anyone other than Stravinsky.

Robert Craft has known this music for fifty years and more. He was, as most know, Stravinsky's acolyte and nearly constant companion in his latter years. He is sometimes thought of as a somewhat pedantic conductor, but in actuality he is not so much pedantic as true to his master, observing all there is in the score - rhythm, nuance, balances, dynamics. And in these two works he conducts them with all the juice they contain. These are lovely, artful, sophisticated performances with immediacy and vitality. Although I own Stravinsky's own recordings of these works, I actually think I prefer these performances, not least because they are in modern sound. But also because they don't hesitate to throw in a little cholesterol which Stravinsky tended to eschew.

It should be pointed out that the fine soloists in Pulcinella are the lovely-voiced soprano Diana Montague (who can forget her recording of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris?), tenor Robin Leggate and basso Mark Beesley. The brashly vital orchestral playing for Pulcinella is by the Philharmonia. The elegant playing for The Fairy's Kiss is by the London Symphony Orchestra.

You cannot go wrong with this CD.

Scott Morrison

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ballet Hits, March 9, 2007

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Reginald Jones "Home Chef" (Hamilton, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stravinsky: Pulcinella; The Fairy's Kiss (Audio CD)

Naxos comes to the rescue again, taking two superb out-of-print recordings and reissuing them on its own label. Stravinsky outdid himself when he rescued some lesser known works by Pergolesi and Tchaikovsky and used his own magic to create a pair of memorable ballets. The perfomances are conducted by Robert Craft, one of the composer's closest friends, and could not be bettered. The mid-1990s sound is first class. At Naxos prices, this CD is a real bargain.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PERGOLESI ET AL, January 6, 2010

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DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stravinsky: Pulcinella; The Fairy's Kiss (Audio CD)

Stravinsky's Pulcinella ballet score has been commonly described as `after Pergolesi' almost since it was first published. This is only a manner of speaking, as rather more than half of the pieces here were by other composers now even more forgotten than Pergolesi himself. I own another cd calling itself `Purcell in the Ale House', and only 4 of the 28 numbers that it contains are by Purcell. It surely involves no disrespect to the memory of Ravenscroft and others on that disc, or of Gallo, Parisotti etc on this to tag their identities on to names that we have a better chance of remembering.

Stravinsky had a liking for various kinds of pastiche of earlier composers and he shows us two of the techniques here. The Pulcinella score contains virtually no new music of Stravinsky's own, and consists of not unduly strict arrangements of Pergolesi and the rest of this 18th century Italian selection. As well as the purely instrumental items there are several vocal pieces, some of them solos for soprano tenor and bass, others trios and one a duet. The three singers here seem to me first class and a great adornment to the performance. If Robin Leggate seems just a trifle distant in the tenor Serenata that follows immediately after the overture, I found that a slight boost to the volume cured that impression for me. In fact I suggest a comparatively high volume setting to get the best out of this recording. The main beneficiary is the orchestral sound, which is entirely Stravinsky's sound and as such gains from as much clarity as possible.

The Fairy's Kiss is a different sort of pastiche, a kind of homage to Tchaikovsky, greatly loved and admired by the later master. There are some quotations from or allusions to Tchaikovsky in the melodies (explained in the liner note), but most of the material is apparently Stravinsky's own. The sound is intriguingly different from the clean and linear Stravinsky sound that we are used to and that we find in Pulcinella. It is a thicker and more `homogenised' sound, surely meant to recall Tchaikovsky's . Similarly, the melody seems to suggest how Tchaikovsky's might have sounded if he had lived half a century later. Robert Craft suggests this different effect very satisfactorily to my ears.

Craft was a close confidant of Stravinsky for much of the composer's life, and it would be surprising if we could not have a high degree of faith in his interpretations in matters of tempo and indeed in most matters. He also contributes a knowledgeable liner note, and in the usual Naxos style there are also resumes of the artists' careers. I have to admit that now and again I found myself wondering how Boulez might have dealt with these pieces, Pulcinella in particular. Don't forget to turn up the volume a little and you will find it easier to shake off stray thoughts of this kind. These are very dependable and idiomatic readings deriving from close acquaintance with the composer, the recorded sound treats them well, it is another Naxos bargain, and we ought to be thankful for all of that.