Bernstein Conducts Stravinsky

 
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IGOR STRAVINSKY
Bernstein Conducts Stravinsky
Boston Symphony, London Symphony, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein

[ Sony Classical / 6 CD Box Set ]

Release Date: Friday 21 May 2021

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"The last great father-figure of Western music" was how Leonard Bernstein eulogized Igor Stravinsky. The composer's works, he asserted, "sum up and embrace all of music itself - from primitive folk art to highly sophisticated serialism, from rarefied church music to outspoken jazz." Bernstein's Stravinsky performances include some of his most indelible interpretations, among them the celebrated recording of "Le Sacre du printemps" with the New York Philharmonic in 1958 that elicited the composer's famous reaction: "Wow!" This recording, Classics Today wrote just a few years ago, still has "an excitement, spontaneity, and primal fury that no other version quite matches."

"Bernstein was an incomparably great Stravinsky interpreter, certainly a better conductor than the composer himself, and this set of his complete recordings for Sony has more than it's share of reference versions." ClassicsToday

Soloists include: Leonard Bernstein (speaker), Michael Wagner (narrator), René Kollo (tenor), Tom Krause (baritone), Ezio Flagello (bass), Tatiana Troyanos (mezzo-soprano), Frank Hoffmeister (tenor), David Evitts (baritone)

"As time goes on, Leonard Bernstein's New York recording of Petrushka only gains in stature … There are two ways to perform this music: as a brilliant but somewhat abstract orchestral showpiece, and as a vivid theatrical experience. The former predominates today, but as his typically enjoyable lecture-demonstration included with the recording makes clear, Bernstein opts for the latter, and projects it as few have. And so the fair music explodes with earthy vitality, ...if you are going to do the work complete, then this is the way to go." ClassicsToday

"He never softens the pungency or the rhythmic attack of the music. His chorus, bigger and more accomplished than Stravinsky's, has the sort of 'straightness' of tone that the composer was obviously aiming for, and the recording is excellent." Gramophone on Symphony of Psalms

Tracks:

L'Histoire du Soldat: Concert Suite
Octet for Wind Instruments
The Rite of Spring (New York Philharmonic)
The Firebird (Suite)
Concerto for Piano & Wind Instruments (with Seymour Lipkin, piano)
Petrushka (1947 version)
Leonard Bernstein Discusses Stravinsky and the Petrushka Ballet
Pulcinella Suite for Chamber Orchestra (1947 Version)
The Rite of Spring (London Symphony Orchestra)
Oedipus Rex
Symphony of Psalms

Review: Bernstein Conducts Stravinsky--and How!!