Gustavo Dudamel takes a fast and fierce approach to Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, generating excitement mainly through speed, with large helpings of volume thrown in for good measure. Such an approach stirs up much energy, and no doubt works well in the concert hall. However, on recordings the shock and surprise can wear off in subsequent auditions (sort of like the piece itself).
There’s plenty of surface fire in the orchestral playing–the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela certainly has the technical chops–but rarely do you get the sense of edge-of-your seat tension. Perhaps Le Sacre no longer presents the fierce challenge to orchestral musicians it once did, but that doesn’t mean they should make it sound easy. (Hearing Ansermet’s scrappy Suisse Romande Orchestra hanging on for dear life in music it can barely play is part of the thrill.) Boulez, who eschews Dudamel’s sprinting, nonetheless generates excitement through exacting rhythmic precision and wonderfully realized Stravinskian timbres.
It’s those timbres that I miss most in Dudamel’s rendition. Woodwinds lack the composer’s piquant colors (as in the Introduction to Part 2), while the horns, never a strong point with this orchestra, at times get swallowed up in the overall ensemble sound, most egregiously in the concluding Sacrificial Dance. The recording, while sporting wide dynamic range and good bass, sets the orchestra at a distance, which may account for the diminished inner-voice impact (but doesn’t explain the barely audible tam-tam in Ritual Action of the Ancestors).
Revueltas’ La Noche de Los Mayas suffers no such sonic anomalies, with its huge dynamic range (as well as its many crashing tuttis) perfectly captured by the engineers. The Venezuelan players tear into the piece with all the gusto you’d expect for this exotic, wild music. Dudmael summons his usual raw, visceral energy, but also conjures brilliant, vivid colors from all sections of the orchestra. Yet he handles the quiet moments with admirable delicacy and tenderness. If you’re not familiar with La Noche de Los Mayas you really ought to hear this performance. It alone is worth the price of the disc, while Le Sacre constitutes a nice make-weight.
