Stravinsky: The Soldier's Tale (English version)
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IGOR STRAVINSKY
Stravinsky: The Soldier's Tale (English version)
Isabelle Faust (violin), Dominique Horwitz (narrator) with ensemble / Alexander Melnikov (piano)
[ Harmonia Mundi / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 27 August 2021
Deeply scarred by the First World War and by the upheavals of the October Revolution in his homeland, Stravinsky found, with the help of the Swiss author Ramuz, a subject that resonated perfectly with his era. In this music theatre piece inspired by an old Russian folktale, The Deserter and the Devil, the composer of The Rite of Spring explored new paths in the last months of the First World War, which would soon lead him to a very personal form of neo-classicism. With this English version, in which Dominique Horwitz plays all the spoken roles in masterly fashion, the musicians assembled by Isabelle Faust have taken up the challenge of performing on instruments contemporary with the premiere. As a result, the work reveals its true personality and its immensely original colours, keen and biting. It is coupled here with two unjustly neglected gems by its composer, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death.
Isabelle Faust, violin
Dominique Horwitz, narrator (the Narrator, the Soldier, the Devil)
Lorenzo Coppola, clarinets
Javier Zafra, bassoon
Reinhold Friedrich, cornets
Jörgen van Rijen, trombone
Wies de Boevé, double bass
Raymond Curfs, percussion
*Alexander Melnikov, piano (Steinway)
"As for that music making, I have nothing but praise. In almost every conceivable way this version goes to the top of the pile. The recorded sound is vivid and full bodied, close enough to be impactful but not so much as to lose richness. Faust's playing, which is the thread that unites the three works recorded here, is remarkable even by her own exalted standards. Having not just a bona fide virtuoso but probably the greatest living violinist play the solo part of A Soldier's Tale takes this performance to another level compared to many fine rival versions." MusicWeb
"Faust has brought the work into the HIP era with percussion and wind instruments of the early 20th century and the two 18th-century stringed instruments (including Faust's 'Sleeping Beauty' Stradivari) playing on gut strings. It's such a deliberately abrasive piece that this all makes less of a difference than one might imagine, though it is fruitily played and kept rhythmically tight. Faust fills out this well-recorded disc with a touchingly persuasive performance of Stravinsky's poignant, muted Élégie and the crisper neo-Classicism of the Duo concertant with Alexander Melnikov a supportive partner on piano." Strad
"It's rounded, intensely vocal, intimate, incredibly sophisticated - not the usual, but very welcome, as if the whole thing were an ethereal fairytale...It's your choice which language version you invest in, but don't miss the musical wonders." Recording of the Month BBC Music Magazine December 2021
"Faust and her colleagues do indeed evoke the mise en scène of performers pulling up in a dusty square late one afternoon and performing from the back of an old truck" Gramophone Editor's Choice Nov 2021
Gramophone Award Finalist 2022 - Chamber
Tracks:
The Soldier's Tale
Duo Concertant for violin and piano
Elegy for solo violin
