Stravinsky: Petrouchka [SACD] [SACD]

On this CD:

1. Petrushka, ballet (burlesque) in 4 scenes for orchestra (1911 version)
Composed by Igor Stravinsky
Performed by London Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras

2. L'oiseau de feu (The Firebird), concert suite for orchestra No. 2 Dance infernale du roi Kastchei
Composed by Igor Stravinsky
Performed by Robin McCabe

3. L'oiseau de feu (The Firebird), concert suite for orchestra No. 2 Berceuse
Composed by Igor Stravinsky
Performed by Robin McCabe

4. L'oiseau de feu (The Firebird), concert suite for orchestra No. 2 Finale
Composed by Igor Stravinsky
Performed by Robin McCabe

Tracks:

Lento - Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Allegro - Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Allegro Non Troppo - Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Vivace
The Magic Trick
Russian Dance
Scene II: Petrouchka's Room
Feroce Stringendo
Dance Of The Ballerina
Valse
Con Moto
Wet Nurses' Dance
Peasant With Bear
Gypsies
Dance Of The Coachmen
Masqueraders
Scuffle
Death Of Petrouchka
Petrouchka's Ghost

Customer Reviews:

Stunning Petrouchka!.......2007-02-09

Irrespective of SACD, the remastering is first rate. The Petrouchka is the most vivid and colorful I have ever heard. As the program notes state, Monteux conducted the premiere and clearly has unique insight into the music. This is a "must have" for any Stravinsky aficionado. Consider the Franck an extra bonus, but buy the disk (at a bonus price, to boot) for the Pretrouchka!

The best!.......2007-01-12

I am very familiar with this symphony. I have a vinyl record we bought 30 years ago. I wanted it in CD because our turntable finally quit. The Franck Symphony is most likely my all time favorite symphony. I have recommended it to many music lovers and they all love it.

Minor course correction.......2006-08-13

The Franck recording was state-of-the-art for its time and even today vintage RCA recordings from this era are stand-outs. The SACD is terrific. I'm bewildered anyone would find the sound quality bad or, worse, dismiss the works of engineers of that era who often got spectacular results even in mono! Perhaps if ones ears are tuned entirely to technicolor Telarc stuff...

The Franck D-Minor, for reasons not quite obvious, is not wearing well with time and it's likely that it's one of those extremely Romantic works that needs a highly committed performance to bring it off well. I honestly haven't heard a modern (meaning last 40 years or so) performance that's done that--the temperament is of a wholly different age. However, a top-notch performance sells the work and you get it here, in the Munch recording with the BSO, with an old Silvestri recording from EMI, and with the classic Mengelberg that turns up in various incarnations.

As far as Monteux doing any Stravinsky goes there's no discussion. He got to the heart (and I mean heart) of these works, totally demolishing the myth that Stravinsky was a cold composer.

Review of both recorded works.......2006-03-04

The Frank Symphony showed poor recording technique, that was common as of the date it was recorded. I would rate it 2 stars.

The Stravinsky on the other hand was well performed and recorded and would rate 5 stars.

Therefore I would rate this CD 3 stars.

Franck's Symphony set ablaze.......2005-08-30

Franck's Symphony in D has never been a favorite of mine. For years I have owned Charles Dutoit's 1991 recording with the Montreal Symphony. Every now and then I take it out and try listening to it again, wondering if I'll ever really enjoy it. I've heard a few other recordings, and none have ever excited me much, until I finally heard this classic rendition by Pierre Monteux, recorded in 1961 with the Chicago Symphony.

Monteux captures the Wagnerian sweep of the first movement, but never takes it over the top. It is a marvelously controlled and insightful performance with astonishing sound. RCA recorded this performance in three channel Living Stereo with the same orchestra and venue as the famed Fritz Reiner recordings. On SACD, this sounds far more sumptuous and full than Dutoit's much later digital recording (and the Montrealers were Decca's audiophile superstars in the eighties and nineties). This is simply an essential recording of this piece.

The pairing is no less valuable. Monteux had a close association with Stravinsky, premiering Petroushka with Diaghelev in Paris and presiding over the infamous Rite of Spring riot. This recording, of course, is a much later performance, but it is no less exciting to hear the original master directing. There is no lack of wonderful Petroushka recordings around, many in fine, modern sound; however, this one is superlative in virtually every way. The sound is excellent, aside from a bit of stridency in some of the crescendos. Otherwise, this recording stands with the best of the modern ones, and the performance exceeds most of them.

Don't hesitate. The price certainly can't be beat, especially for a hybrid SACD.

Stravinsky: Petrouchka; Firebird Suite [Hybrid SACD]

Average customer rating:

Performance A+, Original Mastering A+, This Remaster D-
Mackerras, LSO, Stravinsky: Musical Magic in Surround Sound

Stravinsky: Petrouchka; Firebird Suite [Hybrid SACD]

Manufacturer: Vanguard Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition; Prelude to Khovanshchina [Hybrid SACD]
Le Sacre du Printemps [Hybrid SACD]
Love & Lament [Hybrid SACD]
Beethoven: Complete Sonatas & Variations [Hybrid SACD]
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4; Midsummer Night's Dream; Hebrides [SACD]

ASIN: B0001IN0EO
Release Date: 2004-04-27

Tracks:

The Shrove-Tide Fair
Petrouchka's Room
The Moor's Room
Shorve-Tide Fair (Toward's Evening)
Danse Infernale Du Roi Kastchei
Berceuse
Finale
Bonus Track 1
Bonus Track 2
Bonus Track 3
Bonus Track 4
Bonus Track 5
Bonus Track 6
Bonus Track 7
Bonus Track 8
Bonus Track 9

Customer Reviews:

Performance A+, Original Mastering A+, This Remaster D-.......2007-04-13

The right channel on this SACD/CD release has an unacceptable hum in it, which mars an otherwise fantastic performance brilliantly captured by the original engineers. It's too late for me to return it to Amazon, from whom I purchased it, so if you purchase it with the right to refund it if defective, LISTEN to your CD the moment it arrives, and don't leave it in an auditioning stack for a couple of months like I did. If the CD you pick up does NOT have the hum, you've got a 5 STAR in your hands. The pressings with the hum drop the star count by two. I'm reviewing the copy I have, since you have a chance of acquiring the same problems in your CD. Buyer beware: check your CD out, rejoice if it's kosher, act quickly if you've got that hum. This is all the more a pity since this is now my favorite take on Petrouchka, and I own about 15 different versions of the ballet. I'll even listen to it with the hum -- and I'll eventually break down and repurchase this in the hope my next copy is hum-free.

Mackerras, LSO, Stravinsky: Musical Magic in Surround Sound.......2006-05-20

Let me be clear that I am reviewing the SACD/CD Hybrid version of this recording. Long years have I cherished and cheered this performance of Stravinsky's middle ballet, Petrouchka. The remainder of this disc offers a piano transcription of the equally famous Firebird Suite ballet music, played to the hilt by Robin McCabe.

I first obtained this recording in the ancient days of LP vinyl. Immediately I realized that this was one of the best played and recorded editions available. So I hung onto it, until my LP collection was destroyed in a shipping accident. Then, one day I found it on regular 16-bit CD, and scooped it up as quickly as possible. The coupling was a tremendous, top-notch performance of Mussorgsky-Ravel's Pictures at an Exhibition, with Mackerras leading the New Philharmonia (London). (Now also available in SACD transfer, and standing equally high as sound demo and as musical performance on my play list.)

That regular CD still sits on the fav shelf; but the moment I encountered a SuperAudio version of the Mussorgky-Ravel Pictures, I began to look for an SACD version of the Petrouchka. My particular treasure hunt ended at a local store; but yours may take you along other paths. No matter, look for this wherever you can obtain it.

The SACD provides a surround remix of the original 8-track master tapes, and the result is simply stunning as music, and as high resolution system display piece. (I'm going full tilt on five Def Tech floor speakers, plus a Velodyne sub, powered by Bryston amps, with a Pioneer omni-player feeding a B&K Ref 30 preamp.) Of course, Stravinsky's brilliant orchestration is rooted in the Late Romantic lexicons of Berlioz and Rimsky-Korsakov, and carried forward in a hybrid manner that imports the keyboard athletics of what would otherwise be a concerto genre. The fact that conductor and band are playing the original 1911 scoring, later reduced and streamlined by the composer to fit a more linear, modern sensibility, only emphasizes the flash, fire, and balletic energy of this performance. The London Symphony play it all to the absolute tens, and thanks to the multi-track master, every harmonic nuance and virtuoso soloist's riff is present and then some. In the surround SACD, the instruments have been allocated to the back and front channels, which isn't anything at all like a live auditorium performance would be. It took some getting used to, every time the back channel performers kicked in. That said, if any music in the classical repertoire can take this sort of sonic treatment and still come out music, the Stravinsky Petrouchka has to be on that list.

Since the SACD comes in a hybrid version with a regular CD layer, you get value either way, depending on what kind of player you have at the moment. Also it may serve consumers with regular DVD players to recall that Silverline Classics is releasing the Vanguard/Artemis catalogue in DVD Audio 5.1 remixes, too, that also play in regular Dolby Digital 5.1 format on ordinary movie players. You may eventually get this outstanding performance in that high-resolution format, and enjoy it even if you haven't upgraded to SACD yet.

In any case, grab this one. It appears in the catalogue, but disappears rather more quickly than its excellence might suggest. This SACD is mid-price in some locations, but there is nothing compromised about its sonic and musical value.

Truly five bright stars, and very highly recommended.

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