Search - Stravinsky :: Works of Igor Stravinsky

Igor and I: 53 years and 22 CDs: a lifetime in a box.

RENS | Dover, NH USA | 08/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I began listening to the works of Igor Stravinsky about 53 years ago, when I was 13. Over my lifetime I've listened to every work ever recorded and each in as many versions as possible. A highlight of my life was singing the Symphony of Psalms as a member of the Oberlin College Choir under Stravinsky's direction in 1963. It was half an hour outside of time and space. I remember him in his tuxedo, sitting on a stool with a white turkish towel about his shoulders, like a prize fighter, smiling at each of us as we passed by to take our places on the stage. I remember how everyone in the concert hall rose as one person when he set foot on the stage. I remember the total silence that fell upon the hall before the music began. I remember him, old and rather hunched over, raising his arthritic hands to lead us, to lead us ... and then suddenly a torrent of time and sound rushed in; it was over and there was clapping and shouting and crying. Later he said to our conductor, Robert Fountain, "Your chorus makes a most delicious sound."



And now SONY has issued this giant bargain box of the great majority of the recorded performances to which that mega-corporation now has access - and at an amazingly low price. Thank you, SONY/BMG! But also: shame on you, SONY/BMG! The annotation is terribly inadequate, even for a bargain box. The casual listener doesn't have necessary information; the serious listener doesn't have important information; and the musician / scholar who knows the scores by heart hears what the annotations do not tell. Which version of the Firebird is it? The 1910 original or the 1945 revision? We are told much later that the suite excerpted from the ballet is the 1919 version. We read that Petrouchka is done in the original 1911 version, but actually it is the 1947 version. Stravinsky recorded the 1911 version earlier, in mono, with the New York Philharmonic. The same disc contains the Rite of Spring without indication of which version, the original of 1913 or the 1947 scaled down revision. And so on and on. This is vital information that it would have taken an editor but a few hours to add to the skimpy booklet included in the big box.



There is no indication that any of the performances that first appeared on CD as early as 1986 or so have been remastered. All have of course been transferred from some analogue master at some time or another, but nowhere do we find the standard information telling us whether a recording is AAD or ADD. To my ears the recordings sound the same as the original CD releases in the mid to late 1980s or the "original cover" release about 1991 (the most recent (P) date to appear anywhere in the present box). The sound varies from recording to recording in matters of bass resonance or harshness in the higher ranges, especially in the strings.



Particularly disappointing in this 22 CD collection is the use yet again of the 1961 stereo recording of Oedipus Rex. The sound is raw, the soloists strain their voices, the chorus sounds small and over-miked, and the orchestral sound is muddy. Altogether preferable as a greater performance and a far better recording is the 1951 Oedipus Rex with Stravinsky conducting the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The superb soloists include Peter Pears, Martha Moedl and Heinz Rehfuss, the chorus sings spot on pitch and tempo and is clearly but not too closely miked, and the orhcestral sound is rich and detailed. Moreover, Stravinsky brings greater energy and nuance to his conducting. The narration is given a somewhat over the top presentation in French by Jean Cocteau. Perhaps because it is a monophonic recording, SONY has let it sit in the vaults, to the best of my knowledge never reissuing it on CD. This is true as well of other fine monophonic recordings from the 1950s, including great performances in fine sound with Stravinsky conducting the Cleveland Orchestra. In some cases these would have been musically preferable to the later stereo remakes. They might even have been included alongside of the remakes for purposes of comparison.



Although ballet suites are included in addition to complete ballets, the variant orchestrations of a major work such as Les Noces are not included (as they were on the LP, under Craft's direction). This gift horse is a fine thoroughbred and a grand prize winner, but when you look it in the mouth, some of the teeth are missing.



Every performance is a revelation and worth repeated listening, but as I have indicated, that doesn't mean that every or any performance is the best or even one of the best of the recorded versions available. As other reviewers have noted, it is well to explore other versions on CD and DVD, some more recent and some recorded even earlier than those in this box. I think of conductors such as Tilson Thomas, Salonen, Gergiev, Gardiner, Colin Davis, Kondrashin, Haitink, Boulez, Markevitch, Monteux, Koussevitzky, and Van Beinum, and I am sure readers will think of others. But works of genius require many interpretations and many performances to reveal the fullness of their beauty, and so it is with most of Stravinsky's compositions.



Stravinsky left us what is surely one of the greatest musical legacies of the 20th century; some would argue the greatest, because his compositions track the stylistic developments of the century from its beginning to 1966 and explore nearly the complete range of known musical forms. Indeed, he absorbed the entire course of western music history into his art, but whether he is paying homage to Machaut, Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Bach, Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Russian folk songs, Louis Armstrong, Schoenberg or Webern, his works always sound like Stravinsky.



For goodness' sake: buy the box, listen, and let the music make you new again."

The prime Stravinsky collection

L. Johan Modée | Earth | 08/01/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Stravinsky conducted by Stravinsky - this super bargain set collects the famous recordings that Stravinsky made of his own works for CBS (now owned by SONY). Even if there are many fine recordings of the core of Stravinsky's works, for instance Ansermet's (Decca) and Ancerl's (Supraphon), the composer's own legacy must be seen as the first choice for any Stravinsky collector - or, indeed, by anyone who wants to have the basic Stravinsky repertoire at home.



This boxed set of 22 CDs contains more Stravinsky music than any other contemporary box, and the price is a complete steal (less than $2.5 for each CD, and even cheaper if you buy it used).



Here are some examples of what you get for your money:



- The early ballets: Firebird, Petroushka, Rite of Spring, Les Noces, Pulcinella, and the later, neo-classical ones (e.g., Agon, Apollon).

- The symphonies (in E and in C and in Three Movements).

- Oedipus Rex and The Rake's Progress.

- Chamber music, such as Ragtime, Septet and Octet.

- Jazz suites, and the piano concerto.

- Songs and choral works, such as the Mass, the Cantata and the Symphony of Psalms.

- Later works, such as Threni.

- And much more... (including the Robert Craft recordings that Stravinsky supervised).



(For a complete listing of the content on each CD, see SONY's German Webpage.)



Sound quality is vintage analogue from the sixties, generally very fine and remastered as well. In addition, the box is of the slim cardboard kind, with each CD in a cardboard sleeve. Booklet is included, but (unfortunately) no texts and translations of libretti.



In short, this is an essential set. Warmly recommended even if you already have individual Stravinsky by Stravinsky recordings - I suggest you use them as presents to friends and relatives. Grab and save this one!

"

Yes, Yes, OMG yes

Joe Barron | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States | 08/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Here we have an extraordinary set that belongs in everyone's music library---twenty-two CDs, the entire catalog of the recordings Stravinsky made for Columbia, at an amazing bargain price. Everything is here: the ballets, songs, symphonies, chamber music, short pieces, cantatas and operas, including the complete Rake's Progress. The Firebird, Pulcinella and Petrushka ballets appear both in full versions and as suites. With a few exceptions (A Soldier's Tale appears only as a suite, without narration), it's all the Stravinky you will ever need.

The collection includes some historic performances from as early as the 1930s, with the composer at the piano, but most of the pressings date from the late fifties to mid-sixties, and the stereo sound remains fresh. Some individual pieces are better recorded elsewhere --- listeners would do well to seek out Rite of Springs by Gergiev, Solti, or Abbado --- but as a group, they make a strong impression, and I have not found better, more infectious readings of the Symphony in C, Jeu des Cartes or the Symphony in Three Movements. The voices of Adrienne Albert in the Cantata and the Gregg Smith Singers in the Mass deserve special mention. For me, they make the recordings offered here definitive. (Some other personnel is surprising. The piano quartet in Les Noces consists of the composers Aaron Copland, Roger Sessions, Samuel Barber and Lukas Foss.)

Stravinsky was getting along in years when he arrived at the Columbia studios, and he was not generally well regarded as a conductor in any case, but his performances benefit from the steady guiding hand of Robert Craft, who rehearsed the musicians in advance of the recording sessions, and who is indeed a fine conductor, as he has proven in his own recordings of Webern and Varese. "Robert is my ears," Stravinsky said. There is no higher compliment, I suppose, and Craft deserved it. These recordings are his greatest contribution to Stravinsky's legacy.

The brief notes in the booklet are not everything one could wish, but they never are in bargain boxes like this. Sony has been sitting for years on a treasure trove of historic Columbia recordings it has not seen fit to release on CD. We should be grateful that for once, they did something right."