This one-of-a-kind piece for actors and chamber ensemble came about when Stravinsky was looking for a new work to follow Les Noces, and another ballet proved unfeasible. L’Histoire du Soldat tells the story of a solider who returns home from war and runs into the devil, who trades him a magic book for his violin. The soldier becomes rich by the book but comes to realize that money isn’t everything. He bests the devil in a card game, winning his freedom, and then allows himself to become ensnared again, apparently having learned little from his experiences. The music is purely instrumental; the actors do not sing but rather speak their lines. It is fascinating to study how successfully Stravinsky has worked the rhythm of the language into the music while avoiding any vocalizing.
This performance is identified on the jacket as the “First American recording made with the Dolby System (1967)”, and it is a marvelous one. Every instrument and voice is presented with absolute clarity and there is no discernible background noise–yet there is enough ambience to keep the recording from sounding too dry and microscopic. The players are all virtuosos and Stokowski has them performing as a tight ensemble. The French actors are equally fine, especially Jean Pierre Aumont and Martial Singher, as the soldier and the devil. There is no English translation in the jacket notes, merely a synopsis of the action. But there is an easy cheat, unless you are a purist who must have the work in its original language. The same performance, with the same actors speaking English, is offered on another Vanguard Ultra analog 24-bit, SBM disc as SVC-92 HD. [2/28/2000]
