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Posted: |
Mar 30, 2021 - 7:06 AM
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By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
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Now is the time of year when we celebrate Spring fertility rites, which also unofficially ushers in rum cocktail season for Mr. and Mrs. Birri.
So every year, I mark the occasion by spinning the grandaddy of all exotica LPs, Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps," aka "The Rite of Spring."
Decades before the invention of the stereo LP, Stravinsky predicted the medium by structuring his masterpiece as two 17-minute LP sides, the ideal length of a stereo LP side. (Researchers in the 1950s determined that distortion increased on stereo LP sides running beyond the 18-minute mark.)
So let's discuss our favorite versions.
I have IIRC seven recordings:
Stravinsky (Columbia, mono)
Stravinsky (Columbia, stereo, later recording)
Bernstein (Columbia, stereo)
Pierre Monteux & Paris Conservatoire (RCA Red Seal Mono)
Dorati & Minneapolis Symphony (Mercury Living Presence, stereo LP inside superior MONO cover art)
Ansermet & L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (London, mono)
Stokowski "Fantasia" (Disney, stereo)
I think we would all agree that cover art is at least as important as the music inside, if not more so.
So my two favorites are the Dorati and Ansermet, as the next two posts will demonstrate.
What are your favorites?
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I don't have a favorite, though I recently purchased a ridiculously low-priced CD box set of all of the Igor-conducted Columbia recordings and last week played the Rites of Spring. I know that critics have often panned the composer's versions but I like this performance. I have others, as well, the most recent one being conducted by Dudamel, coupled with one of my favorite Revueltas pieces, La Noche de los Mayas. A great pairing.
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The recordings are stereo. The edition was put out by Sony. 22 CDs. I picked up a copy for $28! All conducted by Igor, except one piece by Robert Craft. As this is a bargain edition there is not a lot of info in the box. You could probably find out more by reading reviews.
Hubert Laws did a nice chamber jazz version on CTI Records, and . . .
Frank Zappa was notoriously famous for his love of Stravinsky and Varese. He quotes Rite on his second album, Absolutely Free, and IS quotes appear here and there throughout his prolific career. Zappa composed a piece called "Igor's Boogie" and quoted Agon during a live performance of an orchestral/rock band concert with Mehta and the L.A. Phil 1970. Some time later FZ said that the only person who noticed it was Lalo Schifrin.
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Pierre Boulez with the Cleveland Orchestra on Columbia, released 1969. I tend to believe that the first version of a piece of music one is exposed becomes the favorite one. This was my introduction to the work. I was 16, and it remains my favorite. I don't own any others because this is "it" for me.
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I don't have a favorite, though I recently purchased a ridiculously low-priced CD box set of all of the Igor-conducted Columbia recordings and last week played the Rites of Spring. I know that critics have often panned the composer's versions but I like this performance.
I got the same set recently and I adore his version. His self conducted Petrushka is my favorite recording as well.
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I tried an alternate version once (Eduardo Mata/Dallas Symphony Orchestra - Dorian Recordings) and was disappointed.
The first recording I ever got--and the only one I ever listen to--is the Irwin Kostal re-record for "Walt Disney's Fantasia".
If someone could tell me why the Kostal is unacceptable, and some other version wholly superior, I'd give it a listen.
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