Composer: Igor Stravinsky
Performer: Julius Katchen
Orchestra: Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris
Conductor: Pierre Monteux
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Decca
Catalogue: ELQ4808903
Release: 2016
Size: 311 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Petrouchka, scènes burlesques en quatre tableaux
01. The Shrovetide Fair
02. In Petrushka’s Room
03. In the Moor’s Room
04. The Shrovetide Fair (evening)
Le Sacre du Printemps
Part 1
05. 1. Introduction
06. 2. Les augures printaniers – Danse des adolescents
07. 3. Jeu de rapt
08. 4. Rondes printanières
09. 5. Jeux des cités
10. 6. Cortège du sage – Le sage
11. 7. Danse de la terre
Part 2
12. 1. Introduction
13. 2. Cercles mysteriéux des adolescentes
14. 3. Glorification d’élue
15. 4. Evocation des ancêtres
16. 5. Action rituelle des ancêtres
17. 6. Danse sacrale: l’élue
There can be few, if any, musicians this century who have conducted as many illustrious and notorious premieres Pierre Monteux. As conductor of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes from 1911 to 1914 he led the first performances of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (1912), Debussy’s Jeux (1913) and Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol (1914), as well as the two works recorded here.
Monteux’s Petrushka was captured on disc three times (all in the 1911 version), and his affection for the work is obvious in this 1956 recording. He brought to the score his own characteristic blend of textual fidelity, clarity and effervescence.
Even more closely associated with Monteux is Le Sacre du Printemps. As well as the riotous premiere on 29 May 1913 (just two weeks after that of Jeux), he conducted the first UK and Dutch performances, and the hugely successful Paris concert premiere in April 1914. Stravinsky described this occasion as ‘a triumph such as few composers can have known the like … the musical realisation was ideal … I came on the stage and hugged Monteux, who was a river of perspiration: it was the saltiest hug of my life.’ This was the last of Monteux’s five recordings of the piece and his only one in stereo.