Salonen: Stravinsky Firebird & Jeu de Carts - CBS Masterworks M 44917 (DDD)
$
65
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Description
ITEM DESCRIPTION:
This beautiful and quite rare LP from CBS Masterworks (M 44917, Dutch pressing*, blue/red sash label, DDD stereo, insert included) features Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra’s high-octance accounts of Stravinsky’s L’Oiseau de Feu (The Firebird, ver. 1910) and Jeux de Cartes, both recorded in sumptuous, demonstration quality sound in the rich acoustics of Watford Town Hall in 1988 (producer: David Mottley/engineer: Michael Sheedy).
*Neither on the jacket nor on the LP could I find the country of manufacture; presumably it is Holland, though I cannot guarantee this.
Wrote the critic M.E.O. in his review for the August 1988 issue of The Gramophone: “This is a very beautiful performance indeed, with the mystery, the hushed quiet and above all the lyricism of the score all emphasized, but not at the expense of vivid colour or rhythmic energy. Stravinsky's indebtedness—to RimskyKorsakov, to Borodin, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Glinka and Glazunov—is evident in this reading, as in many others, but Salonen also searches out an almost voluptuous, heady quality, intensified by rubato, that makes obvious another influence, that of Scriabin. Indeed, the manuscript originally bore such un-Stravinskyan but highly Scriabinesque markings (suppressed before the full score was published) as passionato, con maligna gioia and even mistico. The Scriabin element is at its clearest in those passages which are the nearest the ballet approaches to a pas-dedeux or love duet for Prince Ivan and his Princess: the entry of the 13 captive Princesses, when he sees her among them and falls in love on the spot (the chamber-music texture here is ardent as well as exquisitely detailed), and the impulsively urgent dawn music as the Princesses return to their imprisonment and Ivan resolves to rescue them.
“There is plentiful brilliance, too (the Firebird's first dance and the dance with the golden apples are both full of grace and sparkle), the sinuous orientalisms of the score (as in the Firebird's plea for freedom) are very well caught, and when vigorous impact is required neither Salonen's direction, the precision of his orchestra or the huge dynamic range of the recording are found wanting. Salonen is rather more likely to take tempos to extremes than Rattle on EMI, who is closer to allegretto in the dance with the golden apples, and just as pointed, despite the demurer pace; Rattle also finds no less hieratic solemnity in the Princesses' khorovod than Salonen, but at a much more dance-like speed. Rattle is better, too, at underlining the sheer magical strangeness of Stravinsky's invention, the ways in which he amply repaid his debts to Rimsky and the others with interest. Despite the marvels that Rattle has achieved with his Birmingham orchestra, though, the Philharmonia have a touch more luxuriousness to their sound (their first horn is really superb) and I would be hard put to it to choose between Salonen's sumptuousness and Rattle's miraculous clarity of detail and greater dramatic punch. Salonen's Firebird is the last and most gorgeous orchestral spectacle of the Russian nineteenth century; Rattle's is also the first masterpiece of a twentieth-century composer.
“I'd like both, ideally, but would probably plump for Rattle in the last resort. His couplings are brilliantly characterized and formidably well played (both versions, jazz-band and full orchestra, of the Scherzo a’la russe, and the four pungent orchestral Studies), whereas Salonen offers an account of Jeu de cartes that is strong on crispness and impact but a bit short of grace, wit or exuberant humour (Abbado's account on DG, a fill-up to his first-rate reading of Pulcinella, gets closer to those qualities, while Conlon on Erato—coupled with a very good account of the Symphony in Three Movements—gets closer still).”
Incidentally, the striking cover art was executed by Roberto Duarte, while the superlative liner notes on the reverse side of the jacket – provided in English, German, and French – were written by Phillip Ramey.
CONDITION:
The gradations of condition I use are as follows: MINT, Near-Mint, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor.
The condition of the jacket is EXCELLENT. The only flaws consist of very slight bumping at corners, and a minor crease to the upper-right corner, but that is all. Otherwise, the album almost appears as new. There are no seamsplits, bends, or owners' markings and the album remains solid, bright, and very striking in appearance – overall, an excellent collector's copy.
The condition of the LP itself is near-MINT and the playback is superb – overall, a truly fine collector's copy.
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REFUNDS:
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