BaL 5.11.16 - Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I've set this one to record tomorrow.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Chosen version:

Philip Langridge (Tom Rakewell), Cathryn Pope (Anne), Samuel Ramey (Nick Shadow), Astrid Varnay (Mother Goose), Sarah Walker (Baba the Turk), Stafford Dean (Trulove), John Dobson (Sellem) & Matthew Best (Keeper)
London Sinfonietta Chorus & London Sinfonietta, Riccardo Chailly (download)

[BBMmk2]

Only as a download? The modern way, now, I suppose. what about Jegger's one and Jurowski's?

[teamsaint]

Oops, talking of embarrassment, I quite forgot i also have the Nagano CDs (which I must have shelved when I got them an have never got round to listening to them). I am currently watching/listening to the Ross Noble, oops, Vladimir Jurowski, but will give the Nagano (Dawn Upshaw as Anne) a spin tomorrow.

is this the same performance as the CDs?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

what about Jegger's one and Jurowski's?

Both highly recommended, Bbm - in fact I don't think any version got short shrift on this very good BaL - not on performance grounds, at any rate: the earlier Glyndebourne DVD was left out of the running because of the poor sound and vision; and the recording of the world premiere was rightly relagated for Stravinsky specialists and completists only. (I did suspect that Ms Pickard wasn't keen on Grace Bumbry's performance - but this inference might not have been intended.)

Great work - gave a lovely boost to the morning hearing all these excerpts. Going to be an expensive one, for me - I must get the Jurowski DVD, and I want many of the other CD versions. I think I'll avoid Bostridge (as so often) unless I see a cheap copy in a charity shop: a pity - everything else sounded quite wonderful in this version: Bryn Terfel's voice so much better suited to this repertoire, I feel, than to the "heavier" roles he's taken on.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Great work - gave a lovely boost to the morning hearing all these excerpts. Going to be an expensive one, for me - I must get the Jurowski DVD, and I want many of the other CD versions.

You could change your online name to "The Rake" and buy every version.

[Bryn]

Both highly recommended, Bbm - in fact I don't think any version got short shrift on this very good BaL - not on performance grounds, at any rate: the earlier Glyndebourne DVD was left out of the running because of the poor sound and vision; and the recording of the world premiere was rightly relagated for Stravinsky specialists and completists only. (I did suspect that Ms Pickard wasn't keen on Grace Bumbry's performance - but this inference might not have been intended.)

Great work - gave a lovely boost to the morning hearing all these excerpts. Going to be an expensive one, for me - I must get the Jurowski DVD, and I want many of the other CD versions. I think I'll avoid Bostridge (as so often) unless I see a cheap copy in a charity shop: a pity - everything else sounded quite wonderful in this version: Bryn Terfel's voice so much better suited to this repertoire, I feel, than to the "heavier" roles he's taken on.

Stravinsky's own recordings got fairly short shrift on such grounds. The Venice premier is a right mess and that with the RPO was downplayed due to the contradictions between Craft's rehearsal tempi and those attempted by the composer.

[Pulcinella]

Well, I'm not letting Bryn and ferney get one up on me!
I used to have the Chailly version on tape, and have just ordered it on CD to supplement the Stravinsky recordings in the big Sony box.
Hang the expense (see 'What.....are you waiting for in the post' thread); it's still less than a seat at the theatre!

[ardcarp]

Heard the last Act on R3 this morning. Thought the late and much lamented Philip Langridge was wonderful, capturing the shifting moods of Tom in Bedlam. And Stravinsky's 'love duet' is a masterpiece of less-is-more neoclassicism.

[underthecountertenor]

Thought the late and much lamented Philip Langridge was wonderful, capturing the shifting moods of Tom in Bedlam.

Exactly. A real singer, who always used, inflected and coloured his voice so intelligently and to such moving effect. The contrast with an English tenor of a later generation in the same role was marked.

[Pulcinella]

I found the libretto here:

http://www.rodoni.ch/FENICE-VENEZIA/rakes_libretto.pdf

Might be useful for anyone getting the download without libretto.

[Bryn]

I wonder if the choice of the Chailly on BaL might just act as a fillip to Decca/DGG/Universal (whatever they are calling themselves this week) to re-issue the recording on CD?