Apollon Musagete

[snyprrr]

I rather like Rattle, with whom I was just introduced to the music, and all I could remember was the very very opening; but, I just heard the Craft/Naxos, and Craft sounds like he pinches that first flourish/trill?? Anyone?? I had so wanted Craft to replace Rattle, but there seems to be different approaches going on here?

I like Craft's Orpheus enough,... and Agon. Do I just need time? The Rattle IS very good, that's a fact (it's a library copy). Who else do we have?

[DieNacht]

Am not an expert here, but I´ve got the old Stravinsky/columbia and Mravinsky 1965 ...

[Herman]

I like Craft's Orpheus enough,... and Agon. Do I just need time? The Rattle IS very good, that's a fact (it's a library copy). Who else do we have?

There are many others.

Personally I don't like anything Craft does. And I don't like Rattle either.

It wouldn't hurt to get Stravinsky himself, there are many copies of his ballet recordings floating around. I'm not saying he is the best conductor of his own work, but it is his master's voice.

There's a very good cd with Dutoit doing Apollo, Concerto in D, and Dumbarton Oaks.

I like the Stravinsky series Salonen did for Sony in the nineties, in London, mostly. (His Orpheus is extremely good.)

Jukka-Pekka Sarastre recorded an excellent Apollo in Scotland for Virgin.

[Herman]

Agon is a very hard piece to perform well. Ironically most ballet orchestras (of ballet companies who dance the fabulous Balanchine piece) do a better job than world class symphony orchestras, who simply don't know the ropes.

You can hear that, btw, in Stravinsky's own recording. It's not so good.

The best recording I know (but I don't know every one of them) is on the 'Stravinsky in America' cd by Tilson Thomas and the LSO.

[Herman]

It's just an everlasting (?) shame that all these wonderful ballets  -  and Apollon M. and Agon belong to the very top  -  have been videotaped in the heyday of the NYCBallet. The tapes are in the NY Public Library, but they cannot be released on DVD, due to union and copyright issues. Why doesn't Soros or Buffet pitch in a couple mil? The day these issues will be resolved the world will be a better place. It would be close to saving the Elgin marbles.

[Herman]

Am not an expert here, but I´ve got the old Stravinsky/columbia and Mravinsky 1965 ...

I don't know about Mravinsky. Russian orchestras and conductors had virtually no familiarity with post-1920 Stravinsky.

One of those very bad Agons I heard was with Gergiev and the Mariinsky orchestra.

There's a tv-documentary (available on dvd) about the recent visit of the NYCB to Petersburg, it's called Bringing Balanchine Back, and there's a lovely scene of NYCB conductor Andrea Quinn trying to rehearse Agon or Apollo with members of the Mariinsky, and commenting that the musicians clearly were completely clueless about this music, never having played it and having no appetite to do so. On the night Gergiev takes the baton over the orchestra disappears in the intermission, gone for an hour, to rehearse Symphony in 3 Mvts all over again.

By now Apollo is a regular item in the Mariinsky repertoire. Agon, I doubt it.

[DieNacht]

Heard the "Apollon" with S-sky and M-sky, though mostly as background music. Sonically they are both very good; the Mravinsky was issued also by Denon for their high-profile LPs. The differences in the interpretation are subtle; perhaps there is a slightly more coherent or aggressive string playing by Mravinsky, one of his characteristics, but the Stravinsky is very fine too, slightly more lyrical and warmer. Stravinsky uses 28:50, Mravinsky about 30:30 (last timing from the web, though).

I also like "Agon" a lot, especially the Atherton/London Sinfonietta recording. Mravinsky and Stravinsky also recorded those works, but I skipped Mravinsky, finding it poorly articulated in some instances (under-rehearsed, though far from typical of this conductor ??), and skipped Stravinsky too (poor, dry sound and rather boring playing, not on the level of Atherton). The Mravinsky is on you-tube.

[karlhenning]

There are many others.

Personally I don't like anything Craft does.

Gosh, not any of it, at all, Herman?

[TheGSMoeller]

There's a very good cd with Dutoit doing Apollo, Concerto in D, and Dumbarton Oaks.

That's a great disc for all three pieces, and the recording I prefer for them also.

[Mirror Image]

The Apollo performances I keep coming back to are Craft, Salonen, Dutoit, and Chailly. For me, it doesn't get much better than these.

[snyprrr]

The Apollo performances I keep coming back to are Craft, Salonen, Dutoit, and Chailly. For me, it doesn't get much better than these.

,... isn't that,... most of them?


I just heard this Music for the first time, and, it really really grows on you. It's so 'up', and so tonic, with some lovely themes,... it just reminds me of the Adagietto of Mahler's 5,... no? The famous bit from Death in Venice,... that heroic sound? It certainly IS 'Classical'ly cool, but it has that 'Neo' 20th Century lushness of chords, with a very 'pointed' rhythmic quality. This may be the most satisfying Work for String Orchestra I've ever heard.

Herman, I don't know about per se, but I went on the reviews, and, all I can tell you is that I've been playing it over and over, and it's working very well for me. (I haaave to tell you that my first impressions of Craft's Agon were much much stronger than the MTT I've had for years. The opening alone pricked up my ears. If you love the piece, I suggest downloading your favorite track to sample,... pleeeeease??!! ).

Salonen does sound nice. I wasn't aware that it contain's Igor's 'Complete Music for String Orchestra', haha.

[val]

I have the old version of Markevitch with the London Symphony Orchestra. Good sound and a splendid dynamic.

[snyprrr]

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[asin]B00000E33T[/asin]

Really?,... I heard Karajan's Apollo was one of his few flops. Whaddaya say?

[Herman]

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[asin]B00000E33T[/asin]

correct, that's the one to avoid