Strawinsky

Président du Théâtre national de l'Opéra-Comique, l'auteur évoque sa découverte éblouie de la musique d'Igor Strawinsky lorsqu'il avait 7 ans, une passion qui ne l'a jamais quitté. Il se livre sur les émotions que cette musique suscite en lui et plonge dans l'intimité de la vie et l'oeuvre du compositeur. …

This fifth installment of the Michel Gielen Edition contains works by Bela Bartok and Igor Stravinsky. Gielen greatly admired these composers, whose works he frequently performed. We thus continue the editorial play for the Michael Gielen Edition. Volume 5 includes many first releases or recordings of Gielen from the 1960s and 1970s. Gielen is celebrating his 90th birthday in July, 2017. The album also contains a spoken section from Michael Gielen's last concert with his SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg in 2014.

This Deutsche Grammophon issue seems to be at first glance a 20th century violin concerto/concertante CD. It really is an artist CD celebrating the talented violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. It has Paul Sacher conducting the Stravinsky concerto and Witold Lutoslawski conducting his own music. Actually between the three of them I don't think you could get stronger performances of this music on CD.