BaL 6.07.19 - Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

[cloughie]

I think I have the solution:-

Cancel Breakfast on Saturday morning and begin RR at 6.30 a.m. Begin BaL at 7.00, allowing three hours until 10.00. Then continue RR as normal. I know that would mean extending RR by 20 minutes, but it's already been hacked to allow Jess Gillam to talk over the music, immediately after Tom Service has done the same.

Perhaps they should postpone it until the equinox next March and then make a real feature of it!

[Barbirollians]

Is there a live version? I only know of two Karajan recordings, the 1977 and 1964 studio recordings, both on DG. The 1977 was made in one take, according to Gramophone, without saying whether it was live or studio. But, reading the booklet notes, it was a studio version, and was *largely* taken from the second take in the second recording session. The first recording session was interrupted by Karajan's serious spinal illness, and he took a year to recover before going back to finish the job.

The booklet notes, by Richard Osborne, point out that not everyone agreed with Stravinsky's assesment of the 1964 account. Glenn Gould thought it was the most inspired on record. But, says Osborne, Karajan took composers seriously and showed them the greatest respect, using Stravinsky's comments to improve the performance after many live performances. Caveat: Richard Osborne is Karajan's biographer and greatest fan, so he may have a tendency to paint him in glowing colours.

RO’s biography of HVK is hardly hagiography and he does not refrain from criticism sometimes - in particular about HVK’s recordings of Brahms 3 .

[Barbirollians]

I have far too many already and no recording I have ever heard ( including his own ) has ever matched a live account Rattle gave with the CBSO in 1987 at Sheffield City Hall . A brilliant concert opening with Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces that baffled the old blue rinse set and a delightful Beethoven 4 with Christian Blackshaw.

Am fond of the recordings by Abbado,Mackerras ,Ormandy,Bernstein ,Stravinsky and Markevitch.

[BBMmk2]

I’m surprised that I didn’t see the band arrangement of this work until now! I’m also surprised that there is a transcription of one! I think I must try and buy this recording.

[mikealdren]

Good grief, what a choice.... brave, brave the reviewer who takes this on...

In times gone by it would have been but in the new format, AMcG and pal will discuss a dozen different versions and ignore countless old favourites.

[pastoralguy]

I was lucky enough to hear Esa-Peka Salonen conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra years ago at an Edinburgh Festival concert. I was absolutely stunned at the detail he brought out of the score especially the beginning of the second half where the viola lines were really exposed to reveal the very strange harmony contained within. He really treated the work with tremendous respect instead of simply being an orchestral showpiece/romp. Alas, imho, his recording doesn't really capture that but that performance is what I compare all other versions with.

[Mal]

I was lucky enough to hear Esa-Peka Salonen conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra ...

I was impressed by the performance in "Stravinsky's journeys", a superb video introduced by Jonathan Cross:

https://www.philharmonia.co.uk/explore/films/697/esa-pekka_salonen_introduces_the_stravinsky_series

[CallMePaul]

Should be very interesting this one.

Agreed. I only have the Currentzis - I rarely listen to Stravinsky and am selective about which of his works I like. The early ballets I can listen to occasionally but Stravinsky is not among my favourite composers.

[BBMmk2]

I have the composer’s own plus Leif Ove Andses with Marc-André Hamelin on the piano.

[Mal]

Listening to the composer's own back-to-back with Karajan's 1977 studio recording (DG 429162), I much prefer the composer's own (1960, Sony, CBS 42433)! He keeps the rhythmic momentum going, and avoids Germanic over-smoothness. Karajan isn't a total flop, the opening is very beautiful, and the first dance is very powerful. But should it be that beautiful? Isn't Stravinsky trying to evoke a savage rite? Does the dance need that much power? It's a dance of savage teenage girls, not sumo wrestlers. But it's Karajan's sauntering moments that are most off putting, especially in the first two parts of II where he takes half as long again as Stravinsky... savage rite with a tea break.

Penguin suggests that Stravinsky brings out "grotesque fantasy" and "tense violence" and give it a very positive review, a rosette, four stars and key. Third ear are just as glowing in their praise, saying it has "raw vitality that will lift you from your chair... a cathartic, shocking rabble rouser".

Anyone prefer A.N. Other's to Stravinsky's own? If so why?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Given that there are three recordings each by Karajan and Stravinsky, it might be useful to specify which version/s is/are being used for discussion.

[richardfinegold]

I am realizing that I don’t have any Stravinsky recordings so yes it would be of interest to explore one. I hope that Qobuz has at least one.
I believe that the infamous premier was led by Monteux. I had a Monteux recording on lp leading a French Orchestra that I don’t remember with any particular fondness. I believe that in later years Stravinsky was dismissive of Monteux in this work, and that Monteux in turn was quoted as not particularly fond of The Rite

[cloughie]

I am realizing that I don’t have any Stravinsky recordings so yes it would be of interest to explore one. I hope that Qobuz has at least one.
I believe that the infamous premier was led by Monteux. I had a Monteux recording on lp leading a French Orchestra that I don’t remember with any particular fondness. I believe that in later years Stravinsky was dismissive of Monteux in this work, and that Monteux in turn was quoted as not particularly fond of The Rite

Obviously his dislike was not great enough to stop him recording twice - PCO and BSO. Both good!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Stravinsky was unimpressed by the 50th anniversary performance of The Rite, but publicly expressed nothing but gratitude and admiration for Monteux's work on the work's behalf in at least the first 20 years of its existence - entrusting the work's first concert performance of the work (the one after which Stravinsky was carried out on the shoulders of his admirers) to Monteux; and he entrusted the first complete recording of the work to Monteux in 1929.

By 1963, Monteux was not a healthy man, and, pace cloughie, his later recordings of the work aren't that good. We can, courtesy of youTube, compare for ourselves how the conductor's performance had changed in the intervening years:

1929:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhxvt6NkUJg

1963:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77W7SOqzcaY

WIKI quotes Monteux' own (at least initial) reaction to the work, which does confirm what rfg said about it:

I decided then and there that the symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms were the only music for me, not the music of this crazy Russian. ... My one desire was to flee that room and find a quiet corner in which to rest my aching head.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

https://monteuxschool.org/about/pierre-monteux-and-the-rite-of-spring/