Igor Stravinsky - Ballet Music (Claudio Abbado)

Information

Composer: Igor Stravinsky

• Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring, Version 1947)
• L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird, Version 1919)
• Jeu de cartes (The Card Party)
• Pétrouchka (Original Version 1911)
• Pulcinella (Version 1947)

Leslie Howard, piano

Teresa Berganza, mezzo-soprano

Ryland Davies, tenor

John Shirley-Quirk, bass

London Symphony Orchestra

Claudio Abbado, conductor

Compilation: 1997

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

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Review

This is an excellent Stravinsky collection on all counts. Claudio Abbado's recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra represent the high-water mark of his career, and DG captured the partnership in generally fine sound. This recording of the complete Pulcinella, with the songs included, set an entirely new standard for the work, and its excellence has worn very well in the couple of decades since its initial release. The performance of Jeu de Cartes (Card Game) also should win many new friends for this entertaining late work. As to the Big Three ballets, all of them were among the most recommendable versions when they first came out, and they still are.

— David Hurwitz

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Igor Stravinsky (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian composer. Son of an operatic bass, he studied privately with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from 1902 to 1908. Soon after the impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to write three ballets for the Ballets Russes: Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). The last of which, with its shifting and audacious rhythms, was a landmark in music history. Later Stravinsky also adopted Neoclassicism and serialism in his composition. His major Neoclassical works include Oedipus rex (1927) and the Symphony of Psalms (1930).

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Claudio Abbado (26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor. One of the most celebrated and respected conductors of the 20th century, he served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan (1969-1986), principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (1979-1987), principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1982-1985), music director of the Vienna State Opera  (1986-1991), and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1989-2002). Abbado performed a wide range of Romantic works and recorded extensively for a variety of labels.

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