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Stravinsky – The Firebird

Composers
Genres
Orchestras / Ensembles
Conductors
Label
Catalogue numberBIS-1874 SACD
Release date2012-01-31
Discs1
Orig. sample rate44100Hz
Total time71:40

Classics Today 10/10, March 2012, Disc of the Month; Klassic.com Triple 4 Stars July 2012.

The Firebird was Igor Stravinsky’s first full-length ballet, but not his first collaboration with Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. In 1909, a year before the triumphant première of The Firebird, the charismatic impresario had commissioned Stravinsky to orchestrate two piano compositions by Chopin for use in another project. Evidently pleased with the result, he invited the young composer to write the music for the next production of his ballet company, to a scenario based on various well-known Russian fairy-tale characters. The score holds several moments that recall Scriabin, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky’s teacher, Rimsky-Korsakov, but the mature Stravinsky is already present in the superb orchestral craft and the vivid rhythmic imagination. Rather than either of the two suites which Stravinsky later prepared, Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra have chosen to record the original ballet score, allowing us to relish the enormous range of colours springing from what the composer later described as a ‘wastefully large’ orchestration. Soon after The Firebird, Stravinsky went on to influence the direction of music with Petrushka and The Rite of Spring – two scores which appear on a recent release with the same performers. That much acclaimed disc was short-listed for a 2011 Gramophone Award, named Editor’s Choice in Classic FM Magazine, and selected as Disc of the Month by the websites Classics Today and Classics Today France, and the recording itself was praised on a par with the interpretation and playing, with the reviewer in International Record Review describing ‘the efforts of the BIS recording team’ as ‘truly magnificent’. The present disc includes not only The Firebird, but also the above-mentioned Chopin orchestrations, as well as arrangements of pieces by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius, ending with Stravinsky’s tongue-in-cheek 1955 Greeting Prelude for the 80th birthday of Pierre Monteux, the conductor who had given the world premières of both Petrushka and The Rite of Spring some forty years earlier.
 
  • STUDIO QUALITY
    File formats included in STUDIO QUALITY
    • FLAC 24-bit Stereo
    • FLAC 24-bit Surround 5.0
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
  • CD QUALITY | MP3
    File formats included in CD QUALITY | MP3
    • FLAC 16-bit Stereo
    • MP3 Stereo
$ 14.68
 
Extra material for download
 
 
  Composer: Stravinsky, Igor
  L’Oiseau de feu (The Firebird), 1910 Ballet Score
01 Introduction 02:26 $ 0.51 USD
 
 
  Composer: Stravinsky, Igor
  L’Oiseau de feu (The Firebird) - I. Tableau 40:57
02 Le Jardin enchanté de Kastchei 01:38 $ 0.34 USD
03 Apparition de l’oiseau de feu, poursuivi par Ivan
Tsarévitch
02:17 $ 0.48 USD
04 Danse de l’oiseau de feu 01:19 $ 0.28 USD
05 Capture de l’oiseau de feu par Ivan Tsarévitch 00:51 $ 0.18 USD
06 Supplications de l’oiseau de feu 05:46 $ 1.21 USD
07 Apparition des treize princesses enchantées 02:34 $ 0.54 USD
08 Jeu des princesses avec les pommes d’or 02:32 $ 0.53 USD
09 Brusque apparition d’Ivan Tsarévitch 01:16 $ 0.27 USD
10 Khorovode (Ronde) des princesses 04:58 $ 1.04 USD
11 Lever du jour – Ivan Tsarévitch pénètre dans le palais
de Kastchei
01:24 $ 0.29 USD
12 Carillon féerique, apparition des monstres-gardiens de
Kastchei et capture d’Ivan Tsarévitch
01:26 $ 0.30 USD
13 Arrivée de Kastchei l’immortel 01:10 $ 0.25 USD
14 Dialogue de Kastchei avec Ivan Tsarévitch 01:24 $ 0.29 USD
15 Intercession des princesses 01:12 $ 0.25 USD
16 Apparition de l’oiseau de feu 00:31 $ 0.11 USD
17 Danse de la suite de Kastchei, enchantée par l’oiseau de
feu
00:44 $ 0.15 USD
18 Danse infernale de tous les sujets de Kastchei 04:30 $ 0.95 USD
19 Berceuse (L’oiseau de feu) 02:58 $ 0.62 USD
20 Réveil de Kastchei 00:56 $ 0.20 USD
21 Mort de Kastchei – Profondes ténèbres 01:31 $ 0.32 USD
 
 
  Composer: Stravinsky, Igor
  L’Oiseau de feu (The Firebird) - II. Tableau
22 Disparition du palais et des sortilèges de Kastchei,
animation des chevaliers petrifies. Allégresse générale
03:31 $ 0.74 USD
 
 
  Composer: Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich
  Pas-De-Deux (L’Oiseau bleu – Bluebird) from the ballet
‘The Sleeping Beauty’, arr. Igor Stravinsky
05:06
23 1. Adagio 02:10 $ 0.46 USD
24 2. Variation I. Tempo di Valse 00:45 $ 0.16 USD
25 3. Variation II. Andantino 00:43 $ 0.15 USD
26 4. Coda. Con moto 01:28 $ 0.31 USD
 
 
  Composer: Sibelius, Jean
  Canzonetta, Op.62a for two clarinets, four horns, harp, and
double bass, arr. Igor Stravinsky
27 Canzonetta, Op.62a for two clarinets, four horns, harp and
double bass, arr. Igor Stravinsky
03:24 $ 0.71 USD
 
 
  Composer: Chopin, Fryderyk
28 Nocturne in A flat major Op.32 No.1, orch. Igor Stravinsky 07:31 $ 1.58 USD
 
 
  Composer: Chopin, Fryderyk
29 Grande Valse Brillante Op.18, orch. Igor Stravinsky 06:07 $ 1.28 USD
 
 
  Composer: Stravinsky, Igor
30 Greeting Prelude for the 80th birthday of Pierre Monteux 00:51 $ 0.18 USD
 
  Album total 71:40
ComposerChopin, Fryderyk
Sibelius, Jean
Stravinsky, Igor
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich
OrchestraBergen Philharmonic Orchestra
ConductorLitton, Andrew
ArrangerStravinsky, Igor
OrchestratorStravinsky, Igor

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