Five masterpieces, eighty-three minutes, fabulous incident-packed and detail-studded performances, superb sound courtesy of Stephen Rinker (April 2019 & March this year, MediaCityUK, Salford). The masterpieces include Greeting Prelude – for Pierre Monteux’s 80th, a twelve-tone treatment of ‘Happy Birthday to You’ – and the elephant-inspired Circus Polka, with Schubert marching in at the end. Buoyant and polished renditions of tricky scores; so too of Symphony in C (for Chicago) and Symphony in Three Movements (New York), the latter one of the truly great works of the twentieth-century, both brought off with elan, rhythmic dexterity, powerful expressions, and total clarity. There is also the Divertimento that Stravinsky concocted from his Tchaikovsky-infused ballet-score La Baiser de la fée (The Fairy’s Kiss), realised by Sir Andrew and the BBC Philharmonic with affection and swagger. Produced by Mike George (Symphony in C) and Brian Pidgeon, this stellar Stravinsky release, of profoundly rewarding musical purpose and illumination, is on Chandos CHSA 5315 [SACD], available from November 11.
Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic record Stravinsky Symphonies & Divertimento for Chandos.
This list of approachable Stravinsky sounds like a winner.
It is, Edward – one of the finest orchestral recordings of the last few years, if not the finest. The performances are uniformly outstanding: the BBC Philharmonic comes across as one of the great orchestras of the world – Andrew Davis is breathtaking in his total grasp of this music and the Chandos recording is consistently in the superlative class. If you don’t have this record, your Stravinsky collection is incomplete.