Chez Stravinsky

[snyprrr]

Well, I am aware that I have not yet shared my own preferred recordings of Свадебка. Are you still entertaining the question? 

whatever that was... sure

LOL, you people and the "join us, join us" at the BigBoxClub... I'M MAKING MY OWN BOX!!

Maazel... Best Overall Symphony of Psalms... BAM!!

Vengerov... Best Violin Concerto... ZAAP!! POW!!

Karajan... Best Symphony in C... OH NO HE DIDN'T!!


Read 'em an' weep... there's a new sheriff in town, and he's cracking down hard on all BigBoxes... smoke 'em if ya got'em.

M. Croche is giving you pearls, here, snypsss  0:)

I will not partake of those blood cakes you offer!!


Just tryin to saddle me with a bunch of Opera!! Be happy I liked 'Renard'


btw- which one of you is SantaFeListener?

[snyprrr]

Easy: forget the complete ballet and just buy the Divertimento.

Sarge

Divertimento for Violin & Piano

I realized I had this (Mustonen/vanKeulen-Philips), and took it to work. I was quite pleased by this, but I must also lay credit at the feet of the performers and the engineers. Everything here screams "White Music", so clean and articulate and precise is the rendering. The music itself practically mattered not, the sheer sound of timbres was reward enough. I was actually surprised, and the music was involved enough, all I heard were the shapes and the sounds, and the oh so white backdrop- perfect Neo-Classicism on display! I might prefer this version to the Orchestral.

So, I have assuaged my need for Knussen at the moment, which is a good thing for rent and gas!

[kishnevi]

Everything in the box I posted is conducted either by Stravinksy himself or Craft under Stravinsky's supervision.  Which is why I keep calling it the Igor conducts Igor box.

The Les Noces does contain the four famous composers as pianists, but the sound is very muddy, which is the main reason I wouldn't recommend it.  So muddy in fact that now that you mention it, I can't be entirely sure that it was sung in Russian and not English.  But I think it was Russian....

I am not at home just now.  I will update with any necessary information when I'm home tonight.

Now that I am home:
My set does have Petrushka in the 1911 version.  It was recorded in Hollywood, CA,1961, the orchestra being credited as the Columbia Symphony Orchestra.

But it does strike me that Stravinsky chose to record the 1911 version fourteen years after the 1947 revision.  Perhaps he did not feel the revision was so clearly superior as M. Crioche does?  (The Firebird Suite, by contrast, recorded six years later, is the 1945 revised version.)

[snyprrr]

Symphonie

I have never heard it. Should i probably wait until the current wave of stuff passes? I'm thinking I'll use it as an after-dinner mint to cleanse the palate after this massive binge. I'm guessing it should be pretty cool, but I don't want to foster expectations...

[ritter]

M. Croche's dissatisfaction with this performance of the ballet is underscored by the near-oddity of the English when the groom addresses the bride at the end, and the inadequate sound of the bright, brittle chords.

Surprisingly, the French tranlastion by C.-F. Ramuz (quoted by Jean Cocteau in the first volume of his diaries--Le passé défini--and recorded AFAIK only by Boulez , in an almost impossible to find Adès CD) is quite effective and beautiful.

«J'étais loin sur la mer immense.
La demoiselle blanche s'y baignait,
dedans lavait sa robe blanche, sa robe du dimanche.»

The curious fact is that the only other recording of Les noces conducted by the composer (made in London in the 30s for HMV) is in English as well. I've never heard it, and am not really incined to do so...

[Mahlerian]

Symphonie

I have never heard it. Should i probably wait until the current wave of stuff passes? I'm thinking I'll use it as an after-dinner mint to cleanse the palate after this massive binge. I'm guessing it should be pretty cool, but I don't want to foster expectations...

You mean the Symphony in E-flat?  I think you're confusing it with the Sonata in F# minor, which predates it by a few years.

The early symphony is a decent enough work in the vein of Tchaikovsky and Glazunov, but doesn't contain much that presages the Stravinsky to come.  The scherzo strikes me as the best movement overall.

[kishnevi]

Although there are works like the Lord's Prayer, Credo & especially the Bogoroditse Dyevo which plug more into the Russian Orthodox choral style tradition, and are quite "grateful" for the voices, in many cases, it was his trademark to write for the voice as if it were . . . an instrument. (I mean, the voice is an instrument, but you get me.)

Come to think of it...isn't that a charge levelled against Beethoven?

[snyprrr]

You mean the Symphony in E-flat?

The scherzo strikes me as the best movement overall.

That's what they say about Glazunov!

Yea, I was hoping for something long and rambly, perhaps, boring, just something old-timey, lol... like I said, I'm going to have to use it as a carrot for the Wrap Party! I'm certainly not expecting things, but I'm sure I'll still be disappointed, lol- I remember having to get really drunk to be able to act like I liked some Tchaikovsky... Glazunov's the one who scares me


I've really learned a lot about IgStra in the last few weeks (you can trace my OriginalPost... I mean,...), such as his procedures, how he puts blocks together,... since I am coming late to it this go round, I keep thinking he sounds like Copland and Martinu, but, of course, it's the other way round. But IgStra's works are as chiseled out as Schoenberg's, Webern,- all had relatively short lists, so they compliment one another. Schoenberg's Piano Concerto can simply be looked upon as his 'Concerto in D', or the corresponding Martinu work. Is it IgStra I also hear in Ibert?

The Composers directly influenced by him are specific, no? Copland seems like a mirror image at this point.


But, I don't want to be boring with the obvious- I know I've already bloated the Thread with my droppings- I WILL be guiding past 1000 Posts... I will... so, we might as well have fun for the nest week.



I'm putting on the retro brakes to stave off burnout... I just dumped my paycheck into the Igor trust, lol- I think I have now one version of everything, Operas excluded, Opp. 1-4 excluded, Renard & Noces excluded, Player Piano excluded, and maybe a suite or two... but, I have made sense of Igor to myself, especially 1913-1919 and 1923-1939.

The snyprrr Complete Stravinsky Box will be available shortly

[snyprrr]

oCteT (1922-23)

I don't get it. Or, it's "just another funny French piece" inspired by... "Satie". I guess it's just that it doesn't sound like Nielsen or Taffanel or D'Indy (speaking wind music), it was "new" in the way he put the piece together,- and I've been able to see how his way of Composing a Movement is different than typical Sonata Allegro. Is that what I'm supposed to "get".? Le Satie, oui oui, he he he, Pepe le Pew!

I mean, I find it pleasant enough- maybe I'm raking myself trying to find the Hidden Mystery behind it when all it is is a 10min Ceremonial Fanfare?

We can add the SoWI, but, that's an easier piece to like; this one just... is. They say it's the first Cubist work of Music?

[snyprrr]

I can see and hear how his music is Piano based, how he sat at the Piano and wrote. Same with Copland. Varese?

Anyone write a "Stravinsky Cello Concerto"? Or, what are the top works that are modeled after, or sound like, IgStra?

[Drasko]

Surprisingly, the French tranlastion by C.-F. Ramuz (quoted by Jean Cocteau in the first volume of his diaries--Le passé défini--and recorded AFAIK only by Boulez , in an almost impossible to find Adès CD) is quite effective and beautiful.

«J'étais loin sur la mer immense.
La demoiselle blanche s'y baignait,
dedans lavait sa robe blanche, sa robe du dimanche.»

Ansermet recording is also in French, I think.

[ritter]

Ansermet recording is also in French, I think.

Good to know, Draško. Thanks for pointing that one out. This will be an easier way to listen to the Ramuz translation for those interested, as I suppose the Ansermet is more readily available than the Boulez. I myself, nevertheless, find less to enjoy in Ansermet's conducting as years go by  (even if I do not know this particular recording).

[Karl Henning]

Come to think of it...isn't that a charge levelled against Beethoven?

Aye, though possibly it sticks more in that case  0:)

After a performance of the Missa solemnis, the chorus are really wiped out, feeling as if they've been in a Marathon.  All in all, my impression is that singers come out of a performance of the Symphony of Psalms feeling better about life.  Свадебка is something a bit else, but arguably you're fielding an ensemble of soloists, rather than (say) the Atlanta Symphony Chorus.  (I say that, and now I wonder if Robt Shaw conducted the piece . . . which in turn has me wondering if he did it en anglais, aussi.)

[Karl Henning]

Surprisingly, the French tranlastion by C.-F. Ramuz (quoted by Jean Cocteau in the first volume of his diaries--Le passé défini--and recorded AFAIK only by Boulez , in an almost impossible to find Adès CD) is quite effective and beautiful.

«J'étais loin sur la mer immense.
La demoiselle blanche s'y baignait,
dedans lavait sa robe blanche, sa robe du dimanche.»

Très intéressant!

[Karl Henning]

Well, I am aware that I have not yet shared my own preferred recordings of Свадебка. Are you still entertaining the question? 

whatever that was... sure

Probably my two favorite recordings are Craft's:

[asin]B000675OGM[/asin]

And James Wood leading the joined New London and Voronezh Chamber Choirs:

[asin]B00GJ6NQIC[/asin]

In the tally of the present discussion, add the footnotes that I need to revisit Lenny, and I have yet to settle down to listen to the Eötvös.

[Karl Henning]

Cross-post from WAYLt

Игорь Фëдорович [ Igor Fyodorovich (Stravinsky) ]
Свадебка (Les noces), 1917 version
Eötvös

"Even" in this proto-version, a masterpiece and a landmark.  Of course, in the final version, it is yet more strikingly original and incisive.  Once I got past how odd it is to hear (e.g.) woodwinds in this piece, the score strikes a delicious balance between feeling like a natural sequel to Le sacre, yet nevertheless creating its own sonic space (no less, that is, than in the final scoring).  The final page of the score (the groom's tender address) is, I might say, equally touching, while harking a little back (or, forward, really, given the chronology) to the Symphonies d'instruments à vent.  In short, this is not an item only for Stravinsky nerds (unless one feels that the piece itself is reserved unto them), but — not that this is at all likely — a version of the piece fully worth programming.

[snyprrr]

Ah, another Stravinsky Day dawns... now it's just a matter of waiting for the mailman . Will my mania outlast the postal service's legendary delivery times? gulp

[snyprrr]

l'Historie du Soldat

Surely I've listened to it at some point, how else would I know this is something I don't want? Huh. All I have is the Clarinet Trio, which I begrudgingly listened to today (Ashkenazy/Decca). Well, hmm, it's got some quite busy sections, I was thinking Ives at one point. The music itself didn't do all that much for me, though I started finding the noisiness endearing. And for a Clarinet Trio, I was taken aback by the noisiness, but, again, that is what was drawing me in, the complexity of the textures.

I suppose the expanded version is due for a hearing. I will have Boulez (not arrived), but for some reason I already have preconceived notions that he's not the right one for this piece. Does the extended version come with and without "vocals"?

I can appreciate the "downhome, lowdown" swampy, jazzy ("American") appeal. The Ashkenazy version had no "jazz" I could discern, so I'm not sure what kind of rendition I was listening to. I have been curiously surprised by IS's "busy phase" which seems to include only 'Le Chant du Rossignol' and this piece. Then, it's off to 'White Music' city.

What's it all about Iggy?

[Karl Henning]

Narration and dialogue, typically, yes.  Sometimes, Peter and the Wolf-like, there is a textless recording.  (I have an idea that I have one such recording, but do I remember which? Nnnooo.)


I love every note of this score, but of course (as I have probably mentioned) I played the Soldier in a college staging of the piece at Wooster;  and we studied it in a Stravinsky seminar at UVa. So, I have most pleasant history with it.

[Karl Henning]

Now there I disagree. Being a diehard Boulez fan (no news there  ), I've never warmed to that recording, which I find heavy-handed and lacking in airiness and humor. Boulez's later CSO live recording is vastly superior IMHO.

Regards,

Cheers, Rafael!  Although I have not yet started in on the Pulcinella, this Boulez/CSO account of the Symphony in Three Movements is exquisite, so I owe you great thanks already