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Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, etc.

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle

Awards:

Go for Rattle if it’s detail you’re after and blow the raw primitivism. Very texture-sensitive and atmospheric, for sure, but occasionally also rather indulgent.

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, etc.

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle

Purchase product

44.1 kHz, 16 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

$13.00

320 kbps, MP3

$10.00

No digital booklet included

Stream now lossless, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit

Awards:

Go for Rattle if it’s detail you’re after and blow the raw primitivism. Very texture-sensitive and atmospheric, for sure, but occasionally also rather indulgent.

About

Contents and tracklist

Variation d'Apollon (Apollon et les Muses)
Track length2:59
Pas d'action (Apollon et les trois Muses: Calliope, Polymnie, et Terpsichore)
Track length4:15
Variation de Calliope (l'Alexandrin)
Track length1:25
Variation de Polymnie
Track length1:12
Variation de Terpsichore
Track length1:38
Variation d'Apollon
Track length2:35
Pas de deux (Apollon et Terpsichore)
Track length3:50
Coda (Apollon et les Muses)
Track length3:30
Apothéose
Track length3:31
L'adoration de la terre: Introduction - Les augures printaniers - Danse des adolescentes - Jeu de rapt
Track length5:02
L'adoration de la terre: Rond printanières - Jeux des cités rivales - Cortège de sage
Track length6:09
L'adoration de la terre: Le sage - Danse de la terre
Track length1:39
Le sacrifice: Introduction
Track length4:54
Le sacrifice: Cercles mystérieux des adolescentes
Track length2:59
Le sacrifice: Glorification de l'élue - Évocation des ancêtres - Action rituelle des aancêtres
Track length6:04
Le sacrifice: Danse sacrale (l'élue)
Track length5:12

Awards and reviews

July 2008

Go for Rattle if it’s detail you’re after and blow the raw primitivism. Very texture-sensitive and atmospheric, for sure, but occasionally also rather indulgent.

2010

Recordings of The Rite of Spring are legion, but it's rare to find Stravinsky's most explosive ballet score coupled with Apollon musagète, his most serene. The result is a lesson in creative versatility, confirming that Stravinsky could be equally convincing as expressionist and neo-classicist.
Yet talk of lessons might suggest that sheer enjoyment is of lesser importance, and it's perfectly possible to relish this disc simply for that personal blend of the authoritative and the enlivening that Simon Rattle's CBSO recordings for EMI so consistently achieve. Rattle never rushes things, and the apparent deliberation of TheRite's concluding 'Sacrificial Dance' may initially surprise, but in this context it proves an entirely appropriate, absolutely convincing conclusion.
Rattle sees the work as a whole, without striving for a spurious symphonic integration, and there's never for a moment any hint of a routine reading of what's now a classic of the modern orchestral repertoire.
The account of Apollon has comparable depth, with elegance transformed into eloquence and the CBSO strings confirming that they have nothing to fear from comparison with the best in Europe or America. The recordings are faithful to the intensity and expressiveness of Rattle's Stravinsky, interpretations fit to set beside those of the composer himself.
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