Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, Petrushka, The Firebird, Apollo (CD Review)


Sir Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. EMI 50999 2 06876 2 5. 2-disc set.

I hope this question doesn't sound sacrilegious, but am I the only person in the world who thinks Simon Rattle did his best work years ago with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra? I mean, now that he's doing mostly live recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic, he seems to have gotten more predictable, even staid. Maybe it's just me.

Oh, well, we have recordings like this two-disc set of Stravinsky's most-popular ballets from Rattle and the CBSO to remind us how good he can be. While these may not be the absolute top recommendations for these works, they are very good, indeed, and reasonably well recorded.

Things begin with The Rite of Spring, the music that caused such a sensation when it was first performed in 1913 and along with the First World War just shortly afterwards ushered in the age of modern music. The Rite's explosive gyrations in which a young pagan girl literally dances herself to death was something of a shock to early twentieth-century audiences, but today, through repeated listening and countless imitations, no doubt, it hardly raises an eyebrow. Rattle uses the 1947 revised edition, and he handles the atmospheric end of things quite well, with a nice sense of presence between the music's more-explosive sections. In the big percussive-led interludes, though, Rattle doesn't work up quite the frenzy of Georg Solti (Decca) or Riccardo Muti (EMI), so the performance as a whole doesn't seem as exciting as it might be. Still, Rattle is no slouch, either, and you get your money's worth.

Petrushka, which Stravinsky wrote a few years earlier than The Rite and which he also revised in 1947, is another sound world altogether. It's dark and freakish in a way, the story of a puppet coming to life being rather creepy. The music alternates between showy, circus-type gypsy rhythms and the erratic pulsations of the hollow-headed creature around a brisk piano solo. Here, Rattle is at his best, capturing all the color and descriptive elements of the score that may just give nightmares to people who are afraid of dolls under their bed.

But it was The Firebird that first put Stravinsky on the map in 1910, and Rattle does well by it. It is far more Romantic and melodic than the other two ballets, lighter and airier. Rattle's interpretation is precise and concise, straightforward yet appropriately moody. The only problem, if there is one, that you mustn't under any circumstances put Antal Dorati's old Mercury recording on next to it because nothing compares. What seemed like a perfectly delightful reading by Rattle will dissolve into the merely adequate next to Dorati's magic.

Anyway, the EMI sound is firm, clean, warm, moderately distanced, sometimes mellow, yet well defined in a most natural way. I felt The Rite of Spring could have used a touch more dynamic impact and a stronger bass, but it's OK; Petrushka comes off a little too bright and forward; and The Firebird seems almost perfect until you hear the ultimate transparency of the Mercury recording I mentioned. As a filler, we get Apollo, which comes off as second-tier Stravinsky compared to the big three, although it, too, gets a refined recording. The entire set, studio recorded, is preferable sonically to most of Rattle's later live recordings in Berlin, with their vaguer acoustics.

For buyers seeking all three of Stravinsky's popular ballets, this two-disc EMI set is something to consider. However, be aware that Colin Davis also has a very nice two-disc set available at mid price on Philips, and, of course, buying all three ballets separately is still one's best bet in first-choice considerations.

JJP

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa