Stravinsky Suita Italian

Riccardo Chailly had been anointed by Decca as their resident modernist before he rose to be director of the Royal Concertgebouw, and in some ways these early recordings are still his freshest. This Stravinsky compilation, part of a wide-ranging cycle of the composer's works, all in wonderful sound and played far better than on any version led by the composer, dates from 1984.

Klaus Mäkelä’s second album with the Orchestre de Paris from the series celebrating Ballets Russes scores. His previous two albums have achieved a plethora of 5* reviews and incredible physical and streaming success - over 16M streams and €400k revenue combined. His upcoming international concert dates and US Tour start on 14th March 2024, including Klaus' debut at Carnegie Hall on 16th March. This is Orchestre de Paris' first Carnegie Hall appearance in over 20 years. The programme includes Stravinsky's “Le sacre du printemps” and “L’Oiseau de feu”.

Isabelle Faust and François-Xavier Roth explore here extremely contrasting facets of Stravinsky’s output for violin. From the Concerto to the Pastorale, the composer plays with codes and colours, sketching extraordinarily vivid soundscapes. Once again, the musicians of Les Siècles have succeeded in rediscovering the works’ original dynamic by using period instruments – and that changes everything!

Klaus Mäkelä’s second album with the Orchestre de Paris from the series celebrating Ballets Russes scores. His previous two albums have achieved a plethora of 5* reviews and incredible physical and streaming success - over 16M streams and €400k revenue combined. His upcoming international concert dates and US Tour start on 14th March 2024, including Klaus' debut at Carnegie Hall on 16th March. This is Orchestre de Paris' first Carnegie Hall appearance in over 20 years. The programme includes Stravinsky's “Le sacre du printemps” and “L’Oiseau de feu”.

The Munich Philharmonic and Sergiu Celibidache share an exceptional legacy. He started his work as principal conductor in 1979 and remained in this position for as long as 17 years. Sergiu Celibidache played an integral part in making the Munich Philharmonic what it is today: an orchestra of worldwide renown.

Master and pupil? A youthful venture on the part of the composer of Scheherazade while naval officer, this symphony of Rimsky-Korsakov deploys fine rhetoric worthy of Haydn’s ‘military’ model incorporating contemporary material. His ‘cadet’ applies himself studiously - Stravinsky’s approach is more casual although the da capo appear in their entirety. A mere ad libitum experiment, his Scherzo fantastique is disappointingly lacking in metronomic rigour but not in inventivity. These two pieces appear together for the first time in over a century and are showcased with consummate skill.

Threni (1957-58) is his longest, most ambitious and complex dodecaphonic score, and probably one of its summits. A work like the Requiem Canticles (1966) goes even further in this direction: the composer’s last masterpiece, it seems to summarise in itself the evolution of an entire lifetime, combining elements from the different stylistic periods that punctuated his career – whilst marking a highpoint in the spiritual quest that became increasingly important in Stravinsky’s life. In this major album, Philippe Herreweghe reveals with conviction his love for the composer’s music, and under his sure, inspired direction, the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic reveal their pure poetry.

Pollini is so much a part of the contemporary music scene that it's amazing to realize that the earliest material on this disc (Stravinsky and Prokofiev) dates to the 1940s. These two performances retain their power to startle and amaze, both through Pollini's seemingly effortless virtuosity and through the immediacy of his musical conceptions. This Prokofiev is a close rival even to Richter's. Webern, from six years later, is so colorful and well organized that it makes the difficult music almost easy to listen to. Not many listeners will put up with Boulez's obscurities, but there is still plenty to make the disc worthwhile.

Beatrice Rana, in the words of the New York Times, is a pianist who "has ferocious technique but is distinguished by her musical intelligence." Here she plays virtuosic, poetic works that evoke the creative ferment of Paris in the transitional early years of the 20th century: piano transcriptions of Stravinsky's iridescent ballet scores The Firebird and Petrushka, and Ravel's Miroirs and La Valse.

The Mussorgsky Pictures is the most unusual and most interesting reading of the set. Starting with a carefully molded legato opening trumpet tune, Celibidache puts forth an amply lyrical interpretation, one awash in warm, glowing orchestral colors that, unlike in his Scheherazade, do not get lost in the wash. Every number receives special attention to its particular nuance, Bydlo being just one example, while the finale’s grand solemnity (and massive slowness) makes for a truly moving conclusion.