Historical Recordings - up to 25% off

Mark Obert-Thorn, producer and audio restoration engineer

This programme brings together the three great ballets which Stravinsky composed for Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev. These vibrantly atmospheric scores were all revised after their Parisian premières, and the 1945 version of the Firebird Suite was still brand new at the time of this recording. In what are widely considered to be the best of his commercial recordings of these works, Stravinsky the conductor brings out the expressive and vividly incisive rhythmic strengths of the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York.

Producer’s Note:

Igor Stravinsky made three sets of commercial recordings of his three great early ballet scores. The first was made in the late 1920s with rather ragged-sounding French and British ensembles and less conducting experience on the composer’s part. The last set was made in stereo in the early 1960s with a pick-up orchestra of Los Angeles musicians at a time when the conductor was at an advanced age. The present series, made midway between the other two, is generally considered his best. It features an ensemble of high quality (Barbirolli’s New York Philharmonic), and the composer is on his best podium form. These are generally considered to be the best of Igor Stravinsky’s own recorded versions of his great ballets. Collectors will want these historically significant audio documents in the most detailed sound possible, and renowned technician Mark Obert-Thorn’s tremendous work in audio restoration means this is exactly what they will find with this release.

Tenor legend Fritz Wunderlich and the great German actress Doris Schade in Stravinsky’s rarely performed lyrical melodrama – a unique document from 1960.

Fritz Wunderlich sings Stravinsky – a rare combination! Not only is the combination of singer and work an unusual one, but the work itself also is, and has always been, a rarely performed part of Stravinsky’s oeuvre. The part of Eumolpius, Greek for “he who sings beautifully”, in Igor Stravinsky’s Perséphone could have become Fritz Wunderlich’s calling card if he had sung it more than the once, in 1960, for the Hessische Rundfunk in Frankfurt am Main. Dean Dixon, who was the first Afro-American to become chief conductor of a German Radio Symphony Orchestra in the following year, had programmed this virtually unknown jewel by Stravinsky. The great German actress Doris Schade took on the speaking part of Perséphone. This lyrical melodrama, based on a text by André Gide, was written during Stravinsky’s neo-classical period, its subject matter being the ancient classical myth of death and re-birth. The rewarding tenor role of the priest live recording 1960

Eumolpius presents Fritz Wunderlich at the pinnacle of his art. This live recording of this rarely performed work is a unique document and closes a gap in the discographic legacy of the singer who died so prematurely.