Customer Reviews

Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps (Rite Of Spring); Le roi des étoiles; Petrouchka

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

 

 

I have this recording on tape and vinyl. I was forever looking for it on CD. It did appear briefly in the digital format, but soon went OOP. So Bravo to DG to reissue this gem. Definitely a Collection Du Millenaire! The star of this offering is the MTT/BSO Rite of Spring. MTT was 27 when he recorded this. If you have Stravinsky's own effort from 1962 with the Columbia Symphony, take a listen. See how close MTT comes to how the great man would have wanted his score rendered. MTT had worked with Stravinsky in LA before his move to BSO at the age of 24. So he knew the composer and it would seem had a sound understanding of this most complex orchestral score. A Rite in wrong hands is often a disaster, but this one? WOW!!! It was recorded in 1972, a year after Stravinsky's death. Perhaps, a personal tribute from MTT? It surely would have made Stravinsky proud. The conducting is superb, the playing electrifying and the capture by DG engineers is fantastic. This formidable performance pulls you right into the music and the savage sacrificial tale. You cannot press stop till the final note. Like Tchaikovsky's 1st symphony performance from MTT/BSO this Rite is another gem from the same era. Mr. Hurwitz & Co. take note! This is a 10/10 reference performance! BRAVO!!! MTT/BSO & DG.

It is almost 1:00 AM and I am downloading to iTunes my own LP-to-CD recording of this GREAT performance of the Rite of Spring and Zvezdoliki ("King of the Stars") and I decided, once again, to see if it had been released on CD yet. To my great delight, it is now out and available. In my limited survey, no other performance of Le Sacre measured up to this great one with Tilson Thomas. My collection includes Valery Gergiev, Pierre Boulez, Simon Rattle, Antal Dorati, and Charles Dutoit -- all acquired in a futile attempt to find a substitute for this performance. I'm so pleased this is now available.

I hesitated quite a while before choosing a star rating on this one, but finally decided on four rather than five. If there were a four-and-a-half choice I would have taken it. First, I cannot speak to the Petrushka performance since I have never heard it, but I far prefer the original 1911 version to the 1947 re-write included here.

As for the other two works, well...what can I say? The Sacre performance is absolutely among the best to be heard in my experience. (This despite one odd choice that Thomas makes, altering Stravinsky's rhythm in one measure of "Spring Rounds.") And heaven knows I've heard plenty, having begun life as a bassoonist way back when, who even played the principal part (with that hair-raising opening solo) in a performance in the mid-1970s and who also conducted a couple of reading rehearsals of it ten years later. I grew up with the Boulez/Cleveland LP that was taped somewhere around 1971, but this even trumps that legendary disc. One of the great things about this performance is the way it was recorded. DGG's work in Symphony Hall was really exemplary, reaching unmatched heights of beauty and realism in this and in the Steinberg/Hindemith recording from around the same time. In both cases, producer Thomas Mowrey (who specialized in making completely natural-sounding recordings) and his wizard-like engineers managed to create a sound picture that allows us to hear pretty much everything while never sounding dry or clinical. You have been placed in Symphony Hall itself, just as it sounds, which is really saying something (this is one of the two or three finest concert halls in the world). Some may call the result over-resonant, but I disagree; it's how the hall sounds.

And the orchestra? Incredible, as anyone would expect.

I admit to being baffled by the fact that Amazon does not include Le roi des étoiles in the track list. I assume it's really there, however, so I'll note that this is one of the most peculiar pieces ever composed (not to mention rarely programmed) yet I really like it. Barely five minutes in duration, huge orchestra, six-part men's chorus singing in Russian...no wonder friends of the composer actually doubted that it could be performed at all. In this case, the performance is quite good and very interesting but not really ideal. One problem is the chorus, which is enthusiastic but unfortunately not very well in tune, and I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to how good their Russian might be. The orchestra does a fine job again, I don't think Thomas does any funky interpretive stuff, but the recording...aahh, the recording. Sure, this is a strange work, but I'm not convinced that this means you can turn it into some kind of King Crimson-style psychedelic sound experience. Mind you, it's extremely effective and definitely reflects the overall nature of the work itself, and it must have been a conscious decision on the parts of Thomas and Mowrey. Still, there's no question that this is a very "produced" recorded image with no attempt made to sound realistic. Take it on those terms and you'll likely be blown away--just don't look for it to sound natural.

So a reluctant four stars instead of a reluctant five stars, despite my high enthusiasm for the Sacre portion.

By nearly any imaginable cluster of high sonic and musical standards, this reading of the Rite of Spring ballet score is chock full of vitamins. Tilson Thomas really got a lot from a band which could really deliver whenever it decided to do so: finesse, laser-like edge, and crystalline brilliance. The young Michael Tilson Thomas filled Symphony Hall in Boston with the series of concerts which suggested this recording to DGG in the first place. Crowds of younger rockers populated the audience, a discerning and different sort of listener, not necessarily much drawn to the venerable venue, even by the likes of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Back when the BSO was exclusively recording for RCA, the marketers dubbed the band, The Aristocrat of Orchestras. The power, finesse, and assured brilliance displayed in this reading confirm that tag line, and more, oh so much more. The recording engineers have done a good job of capturing the band in their home, renowned as a musical space for reasons as obvious to the ear as the playing of the band.

I had this on vinyl, first; then on red book CD. I think a special CD-R pressing is also available from arkiv music special projects; but this French edition from DGG also serves up a handsome, spirited reading of the next earlier ballet score, Petrouchka. We are blessed to get Tamas Vasary at the piano, as puppet Petrouchka, and the LSO in a good period, led by Charles Dutoit. To my ears, the Petrouchka does not reach quite so high as the BSO doing Rite; but offers a performance so rich that one seems to quibble by making comparisons.

My own fav Petrouchkas include Sir Charles Mackerras with the LSO, sometimes available in remastered multiple channel super audio, and Robert Craft, also sometimes released in super audio surround sound. Of course I'm keeping this Tilson Thomas Rite, welcomed into the shelf right next to Sir Eugene Goosens with the LSO (in recent DVD-audio), Gustavo Dudamel with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, and Esa-Pekka Salonen with Los Angeles in super audio surround sound.

The BSO is simply stunning, not that they ever released a truly horrible recording. But this reading stands tall, right up there with those former discs released in temporary passing when Claudio Abbado had been talked into doing a guest gig in Boston. Presumably, the band back then wanted to impress Abbado with their considerable best; and DGG was again present to capture that high point. Ditto, for this outing under Tilson Thomas. I drenched myself with this music, via my Beyerdyamic DT990 headphones, and believe me, all the rocker fans in that Symphony Hall audience were right to get so carried away. BSO also did a solid reading of Stravinsky's Rite under long-time music director, Seiji Ozawa; but this one takes the cake, easily. A really odd, unusual plus is the brief cantata, King of the Stars, set to a Russian symbolist poetry text. When was the last time you heard that in a live concert?

Grab this one; just listen, listen, listen. Bravo, BSO.

I can't recall now why I bought the MTT/BSO version of The Rite of Spring so many years ago (on vinyl). But I've never forgotten the goosebumps when that first chord of Le Roi des Etoiles thundered through my speakers (Le Roi was first on the vinyl, acting as a sort of prologue to Le Sacre; in fact, it's still an awfully good prologue, intentional or otherwise). I had hoped that eventually it would become available on CD, but after thirty years, I'd pretty much given up.

And now here it is.

Not to disparage Dorati in any way, but if you love Le Sacre, you've just got to hear this. It has the most extraordinary power. And now that I finally have it on CD, they'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

And, yes, that first chord of Le Roi still gives me goosebumps.