Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

[MDL]

On Saturday morning, Building a Library on Radio 3 will be recommending the best recording of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Past winners have included Abbado/LSO/DG in the late '70s or very early '80s and more recently, I think the accolade went to Chailly/CO/Decca. Or was that a Classic CD recommendation? Oh, I don't know. Anyway, two questions:

1) Which recording would you recommend?
2) Which recording do you think Building a Library will go for?

My answers:

1) My fave is still Boulez/CO/Sony, although I liked Chailly/CO/Decca very much when I heard it, and nobody tops the atmosphere created by Davis/RCOA/Philips.
2) There have been so many new recordings of The Rite that I haven't heard, but I'm going to hazard a guess that they'll go retro and pick Chailly/CO/Decca again. (If I'm right about that recording being a previous winner.)

[rockerreds]

Try Valery Gergiev and The Kirov Orchestra on Philips

[not edward]

I've never heard a really bad Rite, but the ones I keep returning to are Philharmonia/Markevitch (mono), Cleveland/Boulez, and CzPO/Ancerl.

I'm sure others have heard a much larger cross-section of the available performances, though.

Not a clue for (2). I'll guess Cleveland/Boulez.

[BorisG]

Number one for me is usually Boulez (Sony), but on other days it is Karajan's first.



I expect the BBC program will choose Rattle.

[bhodges]

No idea about No. 2 as well, but my faves are below.  I have not heard some interesting sounding versions, e.g., Gergiev, and this DVD below might also be worth investigating.  (I wasn't aware of it until just now, and my favorite live performance was Boulez in 2005 with the LSO at Carnegie.)

Favorite versions on CD:

Boulez/Cleveland
Chailly/Cleveland
Dorati/Detroit
Abbado/LSO

And on DVD, this looks potentially great:



--Bruce

[Que]

Though I've heard some others (the Chailly is excellent btw), this was the one I got and I was/am so taken with it that I never looked for another.



Q

[springrite]

Though I've heard some others (the Chailly is excellent btw), this was the one I got and I was/am so taken with it that I never looked for another.



Q

This is one of my favorites, too, along with Dorati/Detroit and Salonen/Philharmonia.

[techniquest]

I'll give another thumbs-up for Markevitch - I still have my old CFP vinyl disc of his Rite.
I also thoroughly enjoy the Boston SO with MTT on DGG again on vinyl - not sure if it ever made it to CD, and (oddly) Plovdiv Philharmonic under Dobrin Petkov on Laserlight Classics (laugh if you must; it won't even be mentioned on the R3 program).
Personally I find the Gergiev interpretation way off how I prefer to hear the Rite, but I bet it is in the top 3.

[Gustav]

how can you have a "bad' rite of springs???

[springrite]

how can you have a "bad' rite of springs???

Yes, you can. Fortunately it is not on recording. I once attended a performance conducted by Lalo Schifferin. He had no idea what he was doing and orchestral players couldn't understand his directions. It was awful. If there was an intermission between the two parts I'd have left.

[FideLeo]

Karel Ancerl/ Czech Philharmonic for really colourful woodwinds 

[MDL]

Boulez/Cleveland

--Bruce

DG or Sony? I think the DG is interesting, but much prefer the original Sony.

[Hector]

I've had so many recordings over the years; Davis, Muti, Mackerras, Karajan (by default as this is, without doubt, the most boring performance on the planet, a fact the BBC reviewer recognised last time ) and Markevitch, to mention a few.

I heard Markevitch conduct the work, brilliantly, at a festival concert somewhere and veer towards his as a favourite version (1959, Philharmonia, EMI originally).

I like Mackerras as he does not let slip the fact that this is ballet music before being an orchestral showpiece.

It will be interesting to hear whether the BBC reviewer has more than one choice.

[bhodges]

DG or Sony? I think the DG is interesting, but much prefer the original Sony.

Oops, missed this.  I have the DG.  Have heard the Sony years ago, and should probably hear it again in light of all the recordings since. 

--Bruce

[Sean]

How can there be 14 replies without a mention of Stravinsky's recording, on CBS/Sony?

[drogulus]

   This one is terrific, much better than my Goossens/Everest or Haitink/Philips.

[BorisG]

   This one is terrific, much better than my Goossens/Everest or Haitink/Philips.

Have you heard his fiercer 1958 with NYPO? I have the LP. The CD was available shortly in the Sony Royal series. Its availability now, I believe, is confined to a rather large boxset. Japan may occasionally be a possibility.

[val]

My favorites are:

Markevitch in one of his versions, in special the one with the OSR in 1982, violent, exasperated.

Ancerl, with a fabulous dynamic and even more detailed and articulated than Boulez.

Boulez, with Cleveland, in a perspective similar to Ancerl.

[MDL]

Somebody mentioned Haitink. I love his LPO recording but I never heard his BPO remake, which seems to have vanished without trace. Has anyone heard it and is it any good?

[Topaz]

On Saturday morning, Building a Library on Radio 3 will be recommending the best recording of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Past winners have included Abbado/LSO/DG in the late '70s or very early '80s and more recently, I think the accolade went to Chailly/CO/Decca. Or was that a Classic CD recommendation? Oh, I don't know. Anyway, two questions:

1) Which recording would you recommend?
2) Which recording do you think Building a Library will go for?
As you
My answers:

1) My fave is still Boulez/CO/Sony, although I liked Chailly/CO/Decca very much when I heard it, and nobody tops the atmosphere created by Davis/RCOA/Philips.
2) There have been so many new recordings of The Rite that I haven't heard, but I'm going to hazard a guess that they'll go retro and pick Chailly/CO/Decca again. (If I'm right about that recording being a previous winner.)

Here's the results of Radio 3's "Building a Library" recommendations for Rite of Spring from June 2004:

First Choice:

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Yoel Levi (conductor)
(recorded 1991; c/w Pulcinella Suite)
TELARC CD 80266 (CD)

Runner-up Choice:

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle (recorded 1987; c/w Apollo)
EMI 749636 2 (CD)
Budget-Price Choices:
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati (conductor) (recorded 1981; c/w Petrushka)
DECCA 448 226-2 (CD, budget)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras (conductor)
(recorded 1987; c/w Fireworks, Op.4; Circus Polka; Greeting Prelude 'Happy Birthday')
CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE CFP 5 73441 2 8 (CD, budget)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor) (recorded 1989; c/w The Firebird)
SONY SBK89894 (CD, budget)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Eliahu Inbal (conductor) (recorded 1989; c/w Petrouchka; The Firebird; Scherzo Fantastique, Op.3)
ULTIMA 0630189642 (2-CD, budget)
Historic Choices:
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski (conductor) (recorded 1929 & 1930; c/w BACH – STOKOWSKI Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,
BWV 565; TCHAIKOVSKY Nutcracker Suite; DUKAS The Sorcerer's Apprentice; MUSSORGSKY–STOKOWSKI A Night on the Bare Mountain)
PEARL GEMM CD 9488 (CD, mid-price)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Igor Markevitch (conductor) (recorded 1959; c/w their 1951 Rite of Spring recording)
TESTAMENT SBT 1076 (CD, mid-price)

............

I'm not a big fan of Stravinsky but I usually try to keep my CD collection stocked up with the best of the best known works of the top 30 or so composers.  The main source of CD advice I take seriously is from "Building a Library". The version of Rite of Spring I like is Markevich/Philharmonia Orchestra (1959) (TESTAMENT SBT 1076), which I bought it a few years ago having listened to a few alternatives but I can't recall which they were.