BaL 13.02.2021 - Stravinsky: Pulcinella

[Nick Armstrong]

The Abbado recording was my first experience of this work back in the LP days, but I didn't take to it and I realise now this was because of the voices which I still find too exaggeratedly "operatic", which may well be appropriate to the cubist assemblage of styles Stravinsky was working with, but I found it jarring

Yes, usually not my thing at all either, but here I heard them as almost a pastiche of the operatic style (even though they probably sing like that all the time ) and it worked for me.

I had it as a single DG Galleria CD, coupled with Jeu de cartes.

Yes that’s the CD I have. What a pity they junked the original artwork

Great coupling though, I love Jeu de cartes

[Bryn]

Yes, usually not my thing at all either, but here I heard them as almost a pastiche of the operatic style (even though they probably sing like that all the time ) and it worked for me. . . .

With you there, though in my case it was the soloists in Stravinsky's stereo recording. I do not get on nearly as well with the voiceless suite.

[Nick Armstrong]

I do not get on nearly as well with the voiceless suite.

Same here.

[Pulcinella]

With you there, though in my case it was the soloists in Stravinsky's stereo recording. I do not get on nearly as well with the voiceless suite.

I wonder if Stravinsky (and Abbado, for that matter) had any say in choosing the soloists, or whether they were foisted on him by the record company and/or orchestral management.

[jayne lee wilson]

I wonder if Stravinsky (and Abbado, for that matter) had any say in choosing the soloists, or whether they were foisted on him by the record company and/or orchestral management.

Does that really ever happen?
Someone suggested here that Krill Petrenko's first BPO concerts were "chosen for him" - which was very easy to debunk (on the DCH site, with interviews).
We all remember Simon Rattle, in one of his first Berlin PO visits, famously refusing to record with the Berliners when, on arriving for their first session, he noticed the members of the orchestra were different from their concert together...(In Kenyon's Rattle book).

Can you imagine a strong-minded maestro (most maestros tend to be...) like Abbado accepting anything like this? He'd probably have stormed out with a sarcastic aside.... call me when you need me with MY choice of soloists!

I absolutely love the complete Pulcinella. Surely though, the arias are deliberately and essentially "operatic", in quite an Italianate style, florid and heart-on-sleeve and very cantabile, to match the lyric, whether you consider them a pastiche or not. I hear them as a Debussian "hommage", affectionate toward a certain musical archetype...which doesn't need to have literally pre-existed.

I can just imagine some virtual La Scala somewhere, the whole audience humming and swaying along to Mentre l'erbetta or Sento Dire...
Stravinsky always borrowed and adapted a wide range of earlier musics e.g. the Gesualdo Monumentum. (Including serialism later, for a Greek Ballet...

Magpies tend to love the glittering things they steal...

***

Quick plug here for the Monte Carlo/Kreizberg recording, gorgeously played and recorded, on a lovely OPMC 3-disc foldout set of the early ballet masterpieces....
One of my very favourites - the first I reach for now...

[Pulcinella]

Does that really ever happen?
Someone suggested here that Krill Petrenko's first BPO concerts were "chosen for him" - which was very easy to debunk (on the DCH site, with interviews).
We all remember Simon Rattle, in one of his first Berlin PO visits, famously refusing to record with the Berliners when, on arriving for their first session, he noticed the members of the orchestra were different from their concert together...(In Kenyon's Rattle book).

Can you imagine a strong-minded maestro like Abbado accepting anything like this? He'd probably have stormed out with a sarcastic aside.... call me when you need me with MY choice of soloists!

Well, some record companies certainly have their 'standard' artists who seem to get trotted out all the time; think Chandos and the violinist Lydia Mordkovitch, for example. Which is not to say that the conductors are not happy working with her. But it's surely not that common for soloists to record with labels other than those they are signed up to, is it?

I was merely wondering how much say Stravinsky had in picking the soloists; perhaps he was just presented with a roster of people on Columbia's books at the time?

[Bryn]

Does that really ever happen?
Someone suggested here that Krill Petrenko's first BPO concerts were "chosen for him" - which was very easy to debunk (on the DCH site, with interviews).
We all remember Simon Rattle, in one of his first Berlin PO visits, famously refusing to record with the Berliners when, on arriving for their first session, he noticed the members of the orchestra were different from their concert together...(In Kenyon's Rattle book).

Can you imagine a strong-minded maestro like Abbado accepting anything like this? He'd probably have stormed out with a sarcastic aside.... call me when you need me with MY choice of soloists!

I absolutely love the complete Pulcinella. Surely though, the arias are deliberately and essentially "operatic", in quite an Italianate style, florid and heart-on-sleeve and very cantabile, to match the lyric, whether you consider them a pastiche or not. I hear them as a Debussian "hommage", affectionate toward a certain musical archetype...which doesn't need to have literally pre-existed. Stravinsky always borrowed and adapted a wide range of earlier musics e.g. the Gesualdo Monumentum. (Including serialism later, for a Greek Ballet...)

Magpies tend to love the glittering things they steal...

Concur with all but the final comment. The old saw is just no true. Magpies are in no particular way attracted to glittering things. They grab what they can, regardless of whether it's shiny or not. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28797519

[jayne lee wilson]

Concur with all but the final comment. The old saw is just no true. Magpies are in no particular way attracted to glittering things. They grab what they can, regardless of whether it's shiny or not. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28797519

My Magpie wasn't a real Magpie, but a anthropomorphically-metaphorically human one..... I live with such birds, and they never stole a bracelet from me yet despite many opportunities......

[jayne lee wilson]

Well, some record companies certainly have their 'standard' artists who seem to get trotted out all the time; think Chandos and the violinist Lydia Mordkovitch, for example. Which is not to say that the conductors are not happy working with her. But it's surely not that common for soloists to record with labels other than those they are signed up to, is it?

I was merely wondering how much say Stravinsky had in picking the soloists; perhaps he was just presented with a roster of people on Columbia's books at the time?

It does happen occasionally, especially with concertos - what you see in the booklet is something like "[soloist] appears by courtesy of [record label]...

[cloughie]

My Magpie wasn't a real Magpie, but a anthropomorphically-metaphorically human one..... I live with such birds, and they never stole a bracelet from me yet despite many opportunities......

Too busy with their bullying tactics and nicking the eggs from smaller birds nests!

[Barbirollians]

I wonder if Stravinsky (and Abbado, for that matter) had any say in choosing the soloists, or whether they were foisted on him by the record company and/or orchestral management.

Very unlikely re Abbado - Berganza if you remember was his Carmen - and a terrific one.

[Richard Barrett]

the arias are deliberately and essentially "operatic", in quite an Italianate style, florid and heart-on-sleeve and very cantabile, to match the lyric

Yes indeed, which is exactly why they don't need to be further exaggerated by singers having what is in this piece a brief moment under the spotlight. In any case opera singers were a lot less shouty at the time Stravinsky was writing than they later became, I think.

[DoctorT]

I used to love Pulcinella and listened to my LP of the Abbado recording repeatedly. Then I became weary of it, and haven’t listened to it for years. I shall be listening to BaL to see if my interest in the work can be rekindled

[cloughie]

Just listened to the StPaulCO Hogwood - v good and lovely to have the snippets of Gallo and Pergolesi which Igor borrowed.

[PHS]

Is it just me or is the reviewers sound quality not good?