It makes sense that Orpheus should play Orpheus, and the only possible caveat concerning this “on-demand” release from Arkivmusic.com is the short playing time of about 50 minutes (recoupled with, say, this same group’s Pulcinella Suite, you would have had a disc for the ages). That said, these are well-nigh perfect performances: pellucidly clear, rhythmically incisive, sensitive to every dynamic nuance, and simply a joy from first bar to last. I can understand some listeners preferring Orpheus with a larger string section and slightly warmer sonics, but the bottom line is that Stravinsky playing doesn’t get any better than this. Just listen to how much tension the culminating scene of Orpheus’ death generates, all at Stravinsky’s surprisingly moderate dynamic levels. Similarly Danses concertantes, which can sound dry and uninvolving, here becomes a model of neo-classical elegance. An essential disc, for any Stravinsky collection.
