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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Boulez conducts Stravinsky
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| |  | Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps & Petrushka
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“Karajan's 1968 Prokofiev Fifth is a great performance.
Whenever one compares it with later versions inevitably the DG account holds its place at the top of the list. The analogue recording was uncommonly good for its time.
With the advantage of the Jesus-Christus Kirche acoustics, the sound is full and spacious, naturally defined and balanced; there's a slightly leonine quality to the strings and a natural bloom on woodwind and brass. Karajan lived with the work for a decade before he recorded it and this is immediately apparent in the way the first movement unfolds so inevitably.
The ironic opening of the Scherzo with its flawless BPO articulation brings a splendid but unexaggerated bite, and in the more lyrical central section every subtle detail of colour comes over. The passionate string threnody of the Adagio (what playing, what intensity!) is superbly underpinned by darker wind murmurings; the tangibly hushed close leads naturally to the mellower opening of the essentially upbeat finale with its throbbing horns and instant echoes of Romeo and Juliet.
Karajan's Rite of Spring came a decade later and is more controversial. Stravinsky had been sarcastically scathing about the conductor's earlier 1964 account, even describing one section as 'tempo di hoochie-koochie'. So, Karajan let the work rest, and when he re-recorded it in January 1977 it was done in one single uninterrupted take.
The result has less visceral excitement than some but it's still very rewarding, combining both the symphonic and balletic aspects of this extraordinary score, with the BPO providing much sheer beauty of sound, as in the ravishing melancholy of the opening of Part II and the haunting 'Evocation des ancêtres', although other versions find more pungent drama when the horns enter later.
The Philharmonie sound is excellent and both CD transfers are expertly managed to retain the full character of the originals.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Stravinsky - The Great Ballets
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| |  | Stravinsky Ballets
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| |  | Stravinsky: Rite of Spring, FirebirdStravinsky & the Ballets Russes, 100th anniversary collector's edition
Stravinsky: | The Firebird Ekaterina Kondaurova (Firebird), Ilya Kuznetsov (Ivan Tsarevich), Marianna Pavlova (The Princess) & Vladimir Ponomarev (Kachtcheï the Immortal) The Rite of Spring
and staged by Millicent Hodson, Kenneth Archer, lighting: Vladimir Lukin Alexandra Iosifidi (The Chosen One), Elena Bazhenova (300-Year-Old Woman) & Vladimir Ponomarev (Shaman) |
The Firebird: Choreography & libretto: Michel Fokine (1910) reconstruction Isabelle Fokine, Andris Liepa; Set & costume design:Anna & Anatoly Nezhny after original sketches by Alexander Golovin, Léon Bakst & Michel Fokine The Rite of Spring Choreography after Vaslav Nijinsky (1913) Scene plan: Igor Stravinsky & Nicholas Roerich, reconstructed and staged by Millicent Hodson; Set and costume design: Nicholas Roerich, reconstructed and supervised by Kenneth Archer; Lighting: Vladimir Lukin
In celebration of the creation of 'Le Sacre du printemps' in Paris in 1913, Bel Air present a new edition in a DVD-book of a wonderful Stravinsky night at the Mariinsky with the original Nijinsky version of the 'Rite of Spring' and 'The Firebird' both conducted by Valery Gergiev. The premiere of 'The Rite of Spring' at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées, Paris, on May 1913 caused a veritable scandal. The audience was shocked by the primitive violence of the ballet. It was so radically rejected that the ballet was taken off after eight performances. Although long forgotten, thanks to the relentless work of Millicent Hodson, Nijinsky’s original choreography was recreated. 'The Firebird' is a Russian folk tale in two scenes commissioned from the young Stravinsky by Diaghilev and premiered at the Paris Opera House in 1910. The ballet was an immediate success. The Ballets Russes enabled the choreographer Fokine to bring to this enterprise the right amount of novelty needed to captivate but not alienate the audience. It was a total success. CONTENTS: DVD BOOK, 2 ballets 85 min. Bonus: Documentary on the Ballets Russes (8 min), interviews with Millicent Hodson & Kenneth Archer (30 min), 36pp illustrated in 3 languages Format: Colour, 16/9, NTSC, Sound: PCM Stereo - Dolby Digital 5.1. | 
| | | Scheduled for release on 3 June 2013. Order it now and we will deliver it as soon as it is available. |
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| |  | Stravinsky: Petrouchka & Le Sacre Du Printemps
2013 is the 100th anniversary of the first performance of the ballet "Le Sacre du Printemps" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913. Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" became recognised as one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century and is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire. Maestro Gatti and the Orchestra National de France performed Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” multiple times already, including the London Proms 2010. On June 13th 2013 Daniele Gatti will conduct the Orchestre National de France performing "Le Sacre du Printemps" at the place where the piece was originally premiered - the Théâtre des Champs Elysées. |
| | | Scheduled for release on 27 May 2013. Order it now and we will deliver it as soon as it is available. |
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Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony present a special Bluray re-issue of their groundbreaking episode of Rite of Spring from the Keeping Score series, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the premiere of Stravinsky's revolutionary ballet score, presented in stunning Dolby TrueHD 96k upsampled audio. “Funny thing about revolutions, you never know when or where they’re gonna start. They can be social or political or artistic, and very often it's these artistic or cultural revolutions, revolutions in taste, really, that seem to predict other violent changes in society. That's exactly the case with the Rite of Spring.” With these words Michael Tilson Thomas opens the groundbreaking episode from the San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score series. In 1913, with Europe on the brink of war, a fashionable Parisian audience reacted with hostile frenzy to the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s new work. The ballet’s shocking music and dance provoked a riot that evening and was soon recognised as perhaps the most revolutionary piece of the 20th century, a reputation it maintains to this day. In this Blu-ray, MTT and SFS take you from the salons of St. Petersburg to the villages where Stravinsky found inspiration in the earthy power of Russian folk music and dance. MTT then retraces Stravinsky's journey to the cultural crossroads of pre-war Paris. There, in collaboration with the great impresario Diaghilev and his star dancer Nijinsky, Stravinsky developed the shocking, erotic, and violent evocation of pagan Russia that became Rite of Spring. Presented for the first time on Blu-ray disc, Keeping Score: Stravinsky features a thought provoking documentary and a brilliant live concert performance of Rite of Spring along with music from The Firebird. The documentary is filmed in standard-definition 16:9 widescreen, with concert performances filmed in high-definition 16:9 widescreen, and presented in optional 5.1 surround sound with Dolby TrueHD 96k upsampling. |
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