Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps)

On the face of it, it seems strange that a worldly-wise, successful composer like Stravinsky should lock himself away for hours in a small studio and arrange his own music for the pianola. Everyone knows, don't they, that pianolas (a somewhat less than generic term for player pianos) sound like beat-up old honky-tonks, drowning any musical inspiration with the squeaking of their gears and the wheezing of their pedals!

Well, have we got news for you! Pianolas don't always play with an inexorable tempo and at triple forte; they can and should sound as musically sensitive as any other instrument, and Stravinsky himself enjoyed playing them. Over the past forty years there have been so many false descriptions and loud recordings of the pianola that public perception of the instrument is a travesty of what was originally intended. To be sure, there were cheap pianolas to be had, but the majority of instruments were installed in high-class pianos and often cost as much as luxury automobiles. As you listen to Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, we hope that this program note may help to change your mind about a frequently and unjustly maligned musical instrument.

Throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th, it was standard practice to publish symphonies, overtures, whole operas, quartets, ballets – almost everything – in piano duet form alongside the full scores. But why take on the challenge of actually giving concert performances of great orchestral works in versions for four hands on one piano? There are several reasons why we do it; if the duet version is a composer-original, as is the case with all the works presented here, it has per se a genuine validity, deserving of our attention; in some cases the duet version actually predates the full orchestral score; the piano version can clarify the denser orchestral textures and rhythms; and it is both a huge challenge to the pianist and huge fun to play, and to watch. The three duet works on this CD all find on the piano a life as valid and intoxicating as they have in the more usual orchestral performances.

York2 has a fine reputation as the 'duo with a difference', gained through John and Fiona's exploration of larger scale and contemporary scores alongside the rich and familiar duet repertoire. They have given concerts for societies and festivals in the UK and Australia, on BBC Radio 3, CBC TV, at the Salzburg Festival, concertos at the Barbican Centre and South Bank in London. Fiona has taught in the junior departments of the Royal College, Trinity and Guildhall, she is at present at St. Paul’s Girls’ School and Eltham College, both in London. John was Professor at Guildhall for 33 years and is Senior Music Head of Department at St. Paul's Girls' School. Independently and together Fiona and John have rounded, versatile careers that combine concerts (John working in particular with celebrated cellist Raphael Wallfisch), editing and reviewing, composing for major publishers, adjudicating, teaching and coaching.

This month’s new release from SOMM is of two much loved scores but in much less frequently recorded versions, for two pianos and four hands. Rachmaninov arranged his composition for two pianos and Stravinsky prepared his work for piano duet. Both works are brilliantly performed by Martin and Wilson.

A piano virtuoso, Serhiy Salov is a master of colour and atmosphere. The Sacred Spring of Slavs is a musical depiction of pro-Slavic pagan rites created through the juxtaposition of Stravinsky’s mythical The Rite of Spring and Ukranian composer Ihor Shamo’s Hutsulian Watercolours. Salov’s goal was to highlight the parallels between the two works, both of which feature the most bizarre dissonances.

Six mid-price audio releases extend the Keeping Score brand, made popular by the pioneering partnership of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.

The live recordings – also included in the DVD documentaries – feature the popular repertoire which is so engagingly depicted by MTT in the visual programmes. These affordable CDs are the perfect companions to the acclaimed DVD programmes.

“charismatic musical evangelism … genuinely fresh ideas about the presentation of classical music to a mass audience” International Record Review

“SFS remains one of the world’s most immaculate ensembles.” The Guardian

Naïve presents the original soundtrack of Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, the eagerly-awaited film by Jan Kounen about the love story between the French fashion designer and the Russian-born composer. The disc includes a complete recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle – their only currently available version on CD – as well as the score by leading film composer Gabriel Yared.

Released in many countries during the next few weeks, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky stars Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen in the title roles. The first 15 minutes of the film are devoted to one of the most famous and notorious premieres in musical history, the opening performance of Stravinsky's revolutionary work for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, The Rite of Spring, in Paris on 29 May, 1913.

Accordingly this CD opens with a full performance of the legendary Stravinsky ballet, the first on CD by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, recorded in Berlin in 2003. The original soundtrack is composed by Gabriel Yared, one of today’s top film composers (The English Patient, The Talented Mr Ripley), and between these come two short piano pieces by Stravinsky also featured in the film.