Rite Spring

This is the "Masterworks Expanded Edition" of Leonard Bernstein's Quadrophonic 1972 London Symphony Orchestra recording of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps. It was Bernstein's second go at the work in the studio, the first being made at the tail end of the mono era in January 1958 with the New York Philharmonic. CBS was very heavily into "Quad," and this justified a second recording of Bernstein in Le Sacre du printemps in order to show off the boom and bang of the new system. Whereas the 1972 Sacre is definitely exciting in spots and is a wildly colorful performance, it is also inconsistent in tempo, orchestral balance, and intonation.

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, whose Grammy® award-winning accounts of Stravinsky’s Symphony in C and Symphony of Psalms are among Gramophone magazine’s Top 10 Stravinsky Recordings (2011), return to the composer with a recording of the ground-breaking ballet Le Sacre du printemps, whose premiere a century ago marked a turning point in 20th century music history. The programme on this release also includes new recordings of Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Apollon Musagète, another of the Russian master’s breathtaking ballets.

Through his far-reaching endeavors as composer, performer, educator, and ethnomusicolgist, Béla Bartók emerged as one of the most forceful and influential musical personalities of the twentieth century. Born in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Romania), on March 25, 1881, Bartók began his musical training with piano studies at the age of five, foreshadowing his lifelong affinity for the instrument. Following his graduation from the Royal Academy of Music in 1901 and the composition of his first mature works – most notably, the symphonic poem Kossuth (1903) – Bartók embarked on one of the classic field studies in the history of ethnomusicology. With fellow countryman and composer Zoltán Kodály, he traveled throughout Hungary ……..

From Allmusic

To mark his debut on Deutsche Grammophon with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin pays tribute to his legendary predecessor on the podium, Leopold Stokowski. The transcriptions of Bach's organ music are among Stokowski's most celebrated achievements, and none is more famous than his expansive arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, which was prominently featured in Walt Disney's Fantasia. It's a classic showpiece for the orchestra, as are Stokowski's fulsome orchestrations of the "Little" Fugue in G minor, and the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor.

Klaus Mäkelä brings the Orchestre de Paris to Decca Classics for a major new album of Stravinsky’s most iconic ballet scores. The album represents Mäkelä’s first recording with his French orchestra, which will be followed by a further Ballet Russes release in 2024 featuring Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Debussy’s Jeux and L’Apres midi d’une faune.

Destined to become one of the ultimate reference recordings of Stravinsky’s iconic work, Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna give the Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) the authentic Russian treatment - stripping back the Western European symphonic traditions of the past century, to return to the intended Russian folk origins of the piece. The musicians used scatting and singing in order to practice the rhythms and phrasing of the folk tunes entailed in Le Sacre. Le Sacre du Printemps is also a landmark piece in Currentzis’ professional career, having had his first success in Russia with the work in 2002 in Moscow.

BIS is justifiably proud of its audiophile reputation, and this disc offers ample evidence of the label's recording prowess. The same goes for the virtuosity of the Swedish Radio Choir and Orchestra. Although neither performance ranks as the best on disc, together these two great works and these solid, committed interpretations make a tremendously satisfying program–robust, intense, sensuous, and sonically stunning.

Pierre Boulez's interpretation of The Rite of Spring is perhaps more French than Russian, but it's impressive nonetheless. While it emphasizes structure, clarity, and texture over raw energy and visceral excitement, and always keeps something in reserve, it is tellingly potent in the "Glorification of the Chosen One" and the "Sacrificial Dance." In this account Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra established a new standard for ensemble, virtuosity, and idiomatic execution of the music, and their recording remains one of the great achievements of the stereo era. –Ted Libbey

Le Sacre du Printemps, le ballet le plus fameux de Stravinsky, reçoit une interprétation très riche grâce à Pierre Boulez et l'orchestre de Cleveland. En effet, tout en restant fidèle à l'esprit dans lequel l'oeuvre était interprétée par son compositeur, Boulez lui insuffle une puissance très impressionnante. Ce ballet de Stravinsky est d'une importance capitale dans la formation de Pierre Boulez, lorsqu'il travailla avec Olivier Messaien, et nous sentons donc à la fois la réflexion, la familiarité et finalement l'amour que le chef d'orchestre porte à cette oeuvre essentielle de la musique contemporaine. V.B. "Garba"