Igor Stravinsky; Ottorino Respighi - Petrushka; La Boutique fantasque (Vasily Petrenko)

Information

Composer: Igor Stravinsky; Ottorino Respighi

• Stravinsky - Petrushka
• Rossini/Respighi - Suite from the ballet "La Boutique Fantasque"

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Date: 2020

Label: Onyx

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Review

Each of the Stravinsky ballets in Vasily Petrenko’s Royal Liverpool Philharmonic series has been matched to less than predictable repertoire, and perhaps this is the most surprising: from pre-war Ballets Russes to more Italocentric postwar potpourri in the form of Respighi taking mostly late Rossini rarities for another scenario involving dolls and puppets who come to life. Unfortunately this is the briefest of suite versions, compiled by Malcolm Sargent and missing some of the splendid links as well as the terrific fugal apotheosis. At 40 minutes the complete ballet score, for that matter, would have filled a disc which as it stands is quite short measure. It’s a shame because Petrenko has the idiosyncratic fun of a true ballet master with the ‘Mazurka’, ‘Cossack Dance’ and ‘Can-Can’, even if there’s a bit too much glissandoing about in what should be the bittersweet ‘Valse lente’.

Petrushka, though, remains the selling-point. If not quite the most vivid throughout, it too has original approaches – a clearly articulated speediness, in particular, to the beginning and end of the scene in the Moor’s room. There is also excellent continuity between the fairground dances, with a vivid intrusion from the bear and his shrill-piping master. Flute and cor anglais are characterful, trumpets and pianist slightly less so. It’s good to get the full glitter of the original 1911 version, not hugely different from the more often preferred 1947 revision, but the xylophone clatter and the occasional extra weight and snap of brass add spice. Natural if not ideally in-your-face sound, too.

— David Nice

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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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Ottorino Respighi (9 July 1879 – 18 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. He studied at the Liceo Musicale di Bologna, and also studied briefly with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His compositions range over operas, ballets, orchestral suites, choral songs, chamber music, and transcriptions of Italian compositions of the 16th–18th centuries, but his best known and most performed works are his three orchestral tone poems which brought him international fame: Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928).

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Vasily Petrenko (born 7 July 1976) is a Russian-British conductor. He was educated at the St Petersburg Capella Boys Music School and the St Petersburg Conservatoire where he participated in masterclasses with Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov, among others. Petrenko began his career as Resident Conductor (1994–1997) of St Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky. Since then he has worked with the most prestigious orchestras in Europe, Asia and North America. He served as Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for fifteen years (2006-21), and is currently Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

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