About a month before listening to this live recording of
Stravinsky’s Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), I reviewed another,
newer live recording from an even more glamorous orchestra and conductor, the
Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, which I liked largely for its lyrical
grace. Here, in this HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) remastering of a
1987 recording, we find the Houston Symphony under Maestro Christoph
Eschenbach. While the Houston players do not match the Berlin ensemble for
sheer virtuosity, Eschenbach and his Houston players turn in a splendid
performance, and one can hardly beat the realism of the sound.
As you are aware, The
Rite of Spring rightfully takes
its place among the most influential and controversial works of the twentieth
century. I recall an interview with the composer reminiscing about its
premiere: He said people booed him out of the concert hall, and he had to leave
by a side door, the music so outraged the audience. Today, of course, we accept
the ballet as one of the staples of the classical repertoire. Theatergoers at
the premiere, apparently used to elegant, refined dance music in their ballets,
had no idea what Stravinsky was up to with his savage, often ferocious beats
describing some kind of ancient fertility rite. Nor did they understand the
choreography of the first performance. The composer subtitled his work
“Pictures from Pagan Russia,” and one can understand why.
The score’s driving rhythms helped shape the path of
subsequent twentieth-century music, making Stravinsky not only controversial
but genuinely revolutionary. The question these days is how to approach it in
the twenty-first century when practically every conductor on Earth, including
Stravinsky himself, has already had his or her way with it. Certainly, the
music’s combination of lyrical charm, fire, and passion need to come into the
equation, and on balance I’d say the composer had things just right (Sony) in
his own recording. Other renditions have emphasised the power of the work, like
Sir Georg Solti’s recording with the Chicago Symphony (Decca or JVC); or the
fierceness of it, like Riccardo Muti’s performance with the Philadelphia
Orchestra (EMI) or Leonard Bernstein’s with the New York Philharmonic (Sony);
or the analytical aspects, like Boulez’s recording with the Cleveland
Orchestra.
With Maestro Eschenbach we get a well-proportioned
approach, making it a good all-around performance choice; when you add in the
beautifully remastered sound, it comes close to being a top-of-the-line choice.
If it only weren’t for the slight audience noise and applause, that is. You do
have to like the “sound” of a live recording, and I recognize that many people
do.
Anyway, in Part One:
The Adoration of the Earth, Eschenbach offers up an atmospheric Introduction and Augurs of Spring, with well-developed rhythms that never seem
merely like a series of starts and stops. Although the aforementioned Rattle
performance has the upper hand in matters of outright beauty and skill,
Eschenbach more than compensates with evenly rising tensions and monumental
crescendos. This is a ballet one can easily see dancers being able to handle
without breaking their necks. When the big, rambunctious moments arrive, the
Houston brass and percussion sections rise to the occasion, and Eschenbach
delivers the needed excitement.
In Part Two: The
Exalted Sacrifice, Eschenbach continues to show his understanding of Stravinsky
by never pressing forward too fast but quietly building the atmospheric
suspense. Still, he never loses the pulse of the music. Indeed, it is the
score’s interludes of near silence that point up the extensive outbursts all
the better. It’s a fine, spontaneous, well-thought-out interpretation that
bears repetition.
French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was in
addition an organist and ornithologist, that last pursuit somewhat relevant to
the disc’s coupling, L’Ascension
(1933). Messiaen admired Stravinsky’s Rite
for its rhythms and color, and although he worked largely in a religious
context, he combined some of Stravinsky’s technique with his own methods, along
with the occasional sounds of birds. Conductor Erich Bergel conducts the
Houston Symphony in this one, and the piece makes a fascinating comparison and
contrast with Stravinsky’s music, sharing some of its pictorial bearing.
The results sound superb. You will hear a realistic sense
of dimensionality, width, depth, and air, with a lifelike hall ambience. You
will also hear good midrange transparency, well-extended highs, and thundering
lows. Moreover, you’ll find a strong impact within a context of wide dynamics,
further emphasizing the feeling of reality. However, the softest notes almost
diminish into silence, tempting one to turn up the gain. I advise against it.
The bass whacks in track ten, for instance, sound as though they could do some
serious woofer damage. Yet there is an exceptional smoothness about the sound,
which is remarkable given the amount of detail involved. Overall, we find a
very natural-sounding response without being in-your-face about its focus and
clarity. A small degree of audience noise from time to time is the only minor
fly in the ointment, along with an unwelcome (at least, by me) burst of
applause at the end.
For further
information about the various formats, configurations, and prices of HDTT
products, you can visit their Web site at
http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/storefront.php.
To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
