Composer: Igor Stravinsky
Performer: Gil Shaham, Orli Shaham, Madeline Milhaud, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Martial Singher
Conductor: Leopold Stokowski
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Vanguard Classics
Release: 2004
Size: 245 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Part 1
01. The Soldier’s March
02. Music to Scene One (Airs by a Stream)
03. Reprise of the Soldier’s March
04. Music to Scene Two (Pastorale)
05. Postlude to Pastorale
06. Reprise of “Airs by a Stream”
07. Music to Scene Three
Part 2
08. Soldier’s March
09. Continuation of Marching Tunes
10. Royal March
11. The Little Concert
12. Three dances. Tango
13. Three dances. Waltz
14. Three dances. Ragtime
15. The Devil’s Dance
16. The Little Chorale
17. The Devil’s Song
18. The Great Chorale
19. Triumphal March of the Devil
This is one of the true jewels of the Vanguard catalog; Leopold Stokowski’s 1967 recording of Igor Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat. It features actors Madeleine Milhaud (then-wife of composer Darius Milhaud), Jean Pierre Aumont, and baritone Martial Singher portraying playwright C.F. Ramuz’s spoken dialogue as Narrator, Soldier, and Devil, respectively. In its original LP form, this L’histoire du soldat was paired with an equivalent French-language version featuring the same cast. It was the first commercial recording made in America with Dolby noise-reduction technology, which had just become available.
The never-named “instrumental ensemble” consisted of players hand-picked from among the best musicians in New York, and the 85-year-old Stokowski leads them with an energy and power that would be the envy of a conductor less than half his age. He is a bit more subdued here than in his L’histoire du soldat suite, a separate Vanguard recording made on the same occasion, but that might be so as not to show up the actors. One drawback about this performance is that Aumont’s English is heavily accented and a little hard to understand at times, and since 1967 a small number of other English versions of L’histoire du soldat have appeared. Nevertheless, the quality of the acting here is outstanding, and in the case of Madeleine Milhaud, authoritative, as Stravinsky personally put his stamp of approval on her performances. This CD version of L’histoire du soldat is out of print. Artemis Classics has reissued L’histoire du soldat in a Hybrid SACD form that is to be preferred over all others.