BaL 4.05.13 - Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30am Building a Library
Geoffrey Smith with a recommendation from recordings of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat

Available versions:-

François Simon, Jean Villard Gilles & William Jacques (narrator) Yoshiko Furusawa (soprano), Suisse Romande Orchestra, Ernest Ansermet

Kolja Blacher (violin) & Dominique Horwitz (voice), Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic

Boston Symphony Chamber Players

Ensemble Instrumental,, Charles Dutoit

Christopher Lee, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Lionel Friend

The Rambert Dance Company, Della Jones, Julian Pike, Martin Nelson, BBC SO (DVD)

Aage Haugland (narrator), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi

Lorin Maazel (violin), Markus Steckeler (percussion), Hansjörg Profanter (trombone), Wolfgang Bauer (trumpet), Eberhard Marschall (bassoon), Karl-Heinz Steffens (clarinet), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Laurent Manzoni, New Music Studium, Antonio Plotino

The Netherlands Dance Theatre, David Porcelijn (DVD)

Jan Opalach (narrator), Eastman Wind Ensemble & Eastman Virtuosi, Mark Scatterday

Columbia Chamber Ensemble, Igor Stravinsky

Jonathan Keeble (narrator), Benjamin Soames (narrator), David Timson (narrator), Northern Chamber Orchestra, Nicholas Ward

[Bryn]

The Columbia Chamber Ensemble/Igor Stravinsky compilation with Jeremy Irons is well worth hearing, but my two favourites are currently out of the catalogue: Sting/Redgrave/McKellen/LS/Nagano on Sting's Pangea label (still available via Amazon, etc.) and the French language recording (as against her English language one) by Madeleine Milhaud et al/Stokowski on Vanguard (hard to find).

[Don Petter]

I see my introduction to the work, the 1954 Edinburgh Festival production conducted by John Pritchard, including Robert Helpmann and Terence Longdon, is now available as an mp3 download:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stravinsky-Ramuz-Lhistoire-soldat-Soldiers/dp/B004RM2WIU

Does this count?

It uses the English translation by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black. I don't think it's ever been on a commercial CD.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm clearly overdue a CD version. I have a s/h LP copy of the Don's Helpmann/Pritchard recording and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (excellent IIRC) on tape cassette - remember those??

[Petrushka]

Wasn't it this work of which Leonard Bernstein said in his Norton Lectures: 'Don't walk to your record shop to get this. Run!

He made me buy it on LP but ashamed to say I've never acquired a CD version, so, for the first time in ages, I have a BaL of interest.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I'm clearly overdue a CD version. I have a s/h LP copy of the Don's Helpmann/Pritchard recording and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (excellent IIRC) on tape cassette - remember those??

Not only remember them, I remember having that very example: Ron Moody (Devil), John Gielgud (Narrator), and Tom Courtney (Soldier) all conducted by MTT, IIRC? And wasn't also the Michael Flanders translation? I remember Moody giving a very wheedling "Hello!" when the Devil is disguised as a beggar woman.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Not only remember them, I remember having that very example: Ron Moody (Devil), John Gielgud (Narrator), and Tom Courtney (Soldier) all conducted by MTT, IIRC? And wasn't also the Michael Flanders translation? I remember Moody giving a very wheedling "Hello!" when the Devil is disguised as a beggar woman.

You've got the actors and translation spot on fhg, but there's no sign of MTT that I can spot - it appears to be conductorless.

[gurnemanz]

I remember enjoying a semi-staged performance at the Proms umpteen years ago. This one ... a formidable programme!

[verismissimo]

I put on the CD of the Suite conducted by Stravinsky and got sidetracked by the Les Noces which precedes The Soldier's Tale on it.

What an extraordinary work Les Noces is. This version including as the four pianists: Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss and Roger Sessions...

[LeMartinPecheur]

What an extraordinary work Les Noces is. This version including as the four pianists: Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss and Roger Sessions...

You'd have thought one of them could have knocked up a companion piece...

[ardcarp]

I was blown away by l'Histoire when fellow students did it with a professional dancer. My own version is the Charles Dutoit on Apex , bought because I was trying to improve my French at the time. Hah, it's Swiss French, huffed my teacher...but so what? It it surely one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century, with such brilliantly idiomatic and evocative violin writing. Look forward to next Sat.

Text:

http://www.musica.ufmg.br/sfreire/depot/historia%20do%20soldado.pdf

[Ferretfancy]

The Columbia Chamber Ensemble/Igor Stravinsky compilation with Jeremy Irons is well worth hearing, but my two favourites are currently out of the catalogue: Sting/Redgrave/McKellen/LS/Nagano on Sting's Pangea label (still available via Amazon, etc.) and the French language recording (as against her English language one) by Madeleine Milhaud et al/Stokowski on Vanguard (hard to find).

I'm glad you mention this version Bryn, Madeleine Milhaud is great, and Martial Singer makes a fine Devil. So many out of the way issues appeared on CD for the first time back in the 1990s which are hard to find now.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I studied this work many years ago, bur never acquired a CD recording. Hopefully that will change after this week's programme.

[verismissimo]

Re-listened to the Boston recording. Excellent! Gielgud in especially fine form. Terrific English version by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black.

[umslopogaas]

I've got the suite on CD and two full versions on LP, both with fairly formidable casting:

Rudolf Nureyev (Soldier), Micheal MacLiammoir (Devil), Glenda Jackson (Narrator), cond. Gennady Zalkowitsch (who?) on Argo

Terence Longdon (Soldier), Robert Helpmann (Devil), Anthony Nicholls (Narrator), cond. John Pritchard on HMV (mono)

Cant remember anything about the Pritchard version, but I recall MacLiammoir as a particularly devilish Devil. I find this quite a difficult work to listen to, because when you know the ending you know that the Devil always wins.