Customer Reviews

Stravinsky: Symphonies and Concertos

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This set is worth its modest price just to have Grumiaux in the Violin Concerto, with Ernest Bour and the Concertgebouw providing a virtual x-ray of this marvelous score. Grumiaux provides an object lesson for other violinists in how to combine extraordinarily crisp rhythm with soaring lyricism. Bour demonstrates once again how he was one of the 20th Century's most eloquent advocates of modern music. This is far and away the finest current reading - it very nearly eclipses my benchmark for this piece: Samuel Dushkin with the composer conducting in a 1935 Paris recording on DG.

A wonderful bonus is Markevitch performing the Symphony of Psalms. What a stunning reading! And such a glorious chorus! I actually prefer this reading to Stravinsky's own stereo account, and it comes close to the sheer ecstacy of the composer's antique 1931 recording.

Colin Davis is not one of my favorites, but I have to say he delivers crisp, no-nonsense accounts in both the Sym. in C and the Sym. in 3 Movements. Here, though, I still prefer the composer's various accounts in each work. Finally, the virtuoso Netherlands Wind Ensemble provides the best played versions of the Symphonies for Wind Instruments and the Ebony concerto I have had the pleasure of hearing. Once again, I marginally prefer the composer's mono accounts here: his version of the former was slower and more mysterious, and in the latter he had Woody Herman & Co. in full swing. But neither was as expertly played as these Dutch readings - and the sound here is simply terrific.

This CD set is a wonderful introduction to the kaleidoscopic variety of Stravinsky's music. Be sure to hear that Violin Concerto - it's one of the great performances of ANY concerto.

Stravinsky's far underestimated Symphonies are definitely worth hearing. Each differing in form and content, every one is evidence for Stravinsky's genius in all styles of music. The Symphony of Psalms' third movement especially is one of the great masterpieces of modern vocal music, right up there with his Les Noces, Adams' Harmonium, Andriessen's De Staat, and Rachmaninov's The Bells. I only wish it was given a more flattering performance on this particular disc...

In general all the performances on this disc are exquisite, with the only exception being the terrible recording of "Symphony of Psalms" by Ivan Markevitch. Colin Davis is generally considered a world-class conductor (his Berlioz recordings are phenomenal), and this album is strong testimony to that power. Edo de Waart is also a wonderful conductor for this sort of music, getting an interesting tone out of the far-underestimated sound of a wind ensemble. This particular one is the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, whose recording of Andriessen's De Staat is just as underestimated as the rest of the Wind Ensemble Literature, and far cleaner than de Leeuw's recording with the Asko/Schoenberg Ensembles. The Violin Concerto is well handled in general, and the Ebony Concerto is absolutely flawless.

On the other hand, the Symphony of Psalms is simply dreadful. My notes on each movement:

1. Listen carefully to the horn's intonation. Also, the vocalists sound like they're singing a funeral dirge. The high wind playing is particularly messy, sometimes the horns sound like they're playing in the wrong key, exhausted. In general, they tend to rush the tempo beyond what they can reasonably accomplish.

2. SLOW DOWN! This recording is literally 25% shorter than than most conductors, like Gielen, Tilson Thomas, and Karajan, take it, around 6:30. Even Robert Craft, Stravinsky's ("OMG! HE ACTUALLY LISTENED TO WEBERN'S SYMPHONY! TWICE!" *Gasp-Faint*) assistant, takes it at a slow 7:12! That's nearly two-and-a-half minutes shorter! It looses all emotional impact at Markevitch's speed. Also, in a passage that is supposed to be heart-rending, the horn's vibrato just makes one crack up with laughter. Is this some sort of sick joke? I mean, seriously, get a life.

3. While this is probably the best done movement of the piece, it's definitely not outstandingly good.

My advice: Unless you are a particular fan of Edo de Waart, Colin Davis, or Arthur Grumiaux, stick to one of the following on each:

Symphonies (excluding Symphony of Psalms): Michael Tilson Thomas, with the London Symphony Orchestra. Cheap, and the reference recording in many people's minds, including the people over at ClassicsToday.com.

Symphony of Psalms: Simon Rattle delivers a spectacular reading with the Berlin Philharmonic. (I'm only discounting Tilson Thomas because of slight intonation problems in the third movement, which pretty much ruin the emotional effect.)

Violin Concerto: Hilary Hahn and Neville Marriner. 'Nuff said. (Mullova with Salonen and Mutter with Daniels are also amazing, and almost as well coupled, too.)

Ebony Concerto: This is definitely the best recording I have, but the one on the cd "New World Jazz" is also wonderful. It's with MTT and the New World Symphony, and is coupled with some other astounding pieces, including Milhaud's La Creation du Monde, Antheil's Jazz Symphony, Adams' Lollapalooza, and, of course, the under-recorded original jazz band version of Rhapsody in Blue. MTT is pretty hard to beat for all of these pieces.

You won't be disappointed in this compilation ....all great

choices in the selection of numbers, although the highlight

does seem to be "Violin Concerto".

In terms of sound, it's also very clear, very well recorded,

and there's a balanced selection of moods on these 2 CD.

I have to say that I'm not the biggest Stravinsky fan and in fact I have something of a dislike for a lot of 20th Century music if you even call some of the 20th Century works music. So, why did I buy this CD? I'll get to that in a second. You see, I have only truly cared for one of Stravinsky's masterpieces and that was his Symphony of Psalms.

The Symphony of Psalms has always appealed to me for some reason or another and I can never quite put my finger on exactly what that one thing or another is. Perhaps it's the haunting melody that begins the piece in "Exaudi orationem meam" due to its sort of sensation of being forced along at a tempo that never rests and only builds. Then again, perhaps its the amazing "Expectans expectavi Dominum" with it's constant fading in and out of the main melody and constant evolution on throughout the end. There is also a section in "Laudate Dominum" which sounds as if it belonged in a horror movie scene due to the chant which the choir sings and the pianos accompany. What ever the reason there was something about this piece and this piece alone that I simply clingged on to.

So, why buy this CD? More importantly why even dare buy anything but just that piece of music and that piece of music alone. Well, I thought that I might as well, get this CD even though I knew, I just knew, I would dread all the other pieces on it. I just knew that I'd regret that I couldnt just buy the sections of the 2CD set that contained the Symphony of Psalms tracks. I just knew it.

To my surprise, I was dead wrong about this. I was so wrong in fact that when listening to the music you cant help but to feel as if it's slapping you for even doubting it's ability to entertain you and prove it's worthiness. I actually found myself listening to Stravinsky's Symphony in C and his Symphony in Three Movements along with his Violin Concerto in D and even listened to his Ebony Concerto. More surprising then that is that I actually enjoyed listening to them. I think it almost felt unbelievable even to myself that I was repeating a few of the tracks over and listening to them again and again. My only one that I didnt care for was his Symphonies for Wind Instruments which may simply require a hardcore Stravinsky fan to get into. These Symphonies before the Psalms pieces on the 2CD set were such fulfilling appetizers that when the "main course" so to speak came along I was just so captivated by this CD set that I almost didnt need to hear the choir pieces to know I had struck gold with this Stravinsky compilation. Incredible job by all conductors and their orchestra's from the always magnificent Sir Colin Davis to Igor Markevitch. Great CD that all Stravinsky hard cores simply must buy.

Its not a terrible recording. But I'm sure its not the best either. Some of the drawbacks: Too much brass. Or rather, too strong. Too strong, especially in comparison to the other sections of the orchestra. Also, I feel the first movement of the symphony of psalms was totally screwed up. I was able to catch that only because I had heard it before. I'd never heard any of the other symphonies/concertos, so I can only wonder what else might not be up to par.

Que Stravinsky nos sorprenda no es algo nuevo, fue y sera para siempre un compositor innovador y sorprendente, pero al oir estas obras sabra que habia mas sorpresas en la cabeza del compositor ruso.

Comienza la audicion y nos encontramos con una sinfonia postmodernista en la linea clasica, brillante, genial; continua en esta linea la sinfonia en tres movimientos que es una obra extraordinaria, poco compleja para el genio rusa pero encantadora.

Sir Colin Davis se hace cargo de estas obras y al igual que como lo hace con Sibelius nos demuestra su versatilidad y manejo de la obrea sinfonica de cualquier autor.

Edo de Waart junto al conjunto de instrumentos de viento de Holanda se encarga de dos bellezas musicales de estructura casi camaresca son bellisimos, simples y originales.

Aparece ahora una genialidad, un concierto para violin cercano a Bartok si se quiere, solo para aproximarlo, grandioso, innovador, genial en la soberbia interpretacion del afamado Arthur Grumiax. Para este solista nada mejor que la orquesta del concertgebouw (de recio sonido)dirigidos por el prolijo Ernest Bour.

Finalizamos esta sorprendente coleccion con la Sinfonia de los Salmos, que es casi un oratorio,partes que podrian ser los tiempos de una sinfonia pero que, se acercan mas a momentos de una liturgia, son bellos simples, exultantes de luminosidad y reflexion. Igor Markevitch el director ruso de tomo y lomo, se une a la sinfonica de Rusia, a coros masculinos y otros solistas para entregarnos esta version generosa e impactante.