Volume One was very recommendable, so too now its successor, a complete rendition of the ballet-score Le Baiser de la fée/The Fairy’s Kiss (1928, Paris) – written for Ida Rubinstein to a story by Hans Christian Andersen, choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, later by George Balanchine and Kenneth MacMillan – for which Stravinsky turned to Tchaikovsky songs and piano shorts as a basis while always remaining himself. It’s music of romance and charm, occasionally sinister, some sadness, of description and rhythmic ingenuity, conducted with affection and an ear for vivid detail (such as bass drum strokes) by Vladimir Jurowski, played with precision, sensitivity and elan by the London Philharmonic (notable wind solos, horns especially impressive). Musically alluring, and also in terms of character and imagery as well as clarity and dynamism, there’s many a ‘sweet nothing’ (such as during the ‘Adagio’, track 11, cello, harp, flute, clarinet) as well as a sense of narrative and theatre, with heartfelt expression and purposeful momentum vying, very well recorded in the Royal Festival Hall on March 17, 2018. Stravinsky’s sympathetic chamber arrangement of three numbers from The Sleeping Beauty is an apt opener, featuring Bluebird and Aurora, and LPO leader Pieter Schoeman doing a flamboyant turn, his colleagues pirouetting gracefully and waltzing with intent. A few coughs and sneezes aside, the audience is admirably non-intrusive, and applause is removed, its absence making for a silent transition from Beauty to Kiss. LPO – 0126.
London Philharmonic Orchestra releases Vladimir Jurowski conducting Stravinsky, Volume Two – The Fairy’s Kiss & Sleeping Beauty arrangements.
