Wow, this is some disc! There are so few new major-label productions featuring today’s “big” artists–and let’s face it, so many of those turn out to be uninteresting–that it comes almost as a shock to note that there really can be a difference when everyone involved lives up to their reputations. Without a doubt, Esa-Pekka Salonen is a great conductor, particularly in contemporary music such as this. He recorded The Rite of Spring previously with the Philharmonia for Sony, and that was a very exciting performance, but this one has just that much more bite and savagery in the Sacrificial Dance, or at the conclusion of Part One. Indeed, the playing of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is pretty amazing throughout, with well-nigh unbelievable clarity in the polyrhythmic complexities of the Entry of the Sage, but also in the gentler washes of color that open Part Two.
The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, that other “primitivist” masterpiece, makes an ideal coupling, and the performance is no less splendid. The solo clarinet is appropriately seductive, the entrance of the Mandarin is chilling, and the “chase” fugue speeds along at an impressive clip, rising to an absolutely shattering climax. Including the original version of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain also was an inspired idea. This bit of musical barbarism is very much the 19th-century forbear of its two 20th-century cousins, and Salonen makes no effort to smooth over its rough edges. It’s also fitting for this recording, made in the excellent acoustics of the new Disney Hall, to include a work that featured so prominently in the film Fantasia (albeit in Stokowski’s orchestration). Speaking of which, the sound really is superb in all formats, with rock-solid bass and a vividly coherent ensemble perspective that’s all the more remarkable considering the level of detail captured. Let’s hear it for the A-Team.
