If you’ve been waiting for a really good performance of these two odd little Stravinsky works, wait no longer. Stravinsky’s Rossignol is like Verdi’s Luisa Miller: in its three brief acts we travel from the composer’s early, somewhat derivative period, through experimentation, to the mature style. It’s a wonderful microcosm to study and enjoy. And the work is a delight, with generous orchestral and vocal textures and a truly fine part for high coloratura soprano, sung here by the great Natalie Dessay, who manages to make it all sound like speech. And the others in the cast are quite good as well. The last 16 minutes of the CD are taken up with Renard, from 1916, a “burlesque tale in song and dance,” that’s cast for a pair of tenors and a pair of basses. The story of the fox in the barnyard is here told with chamber accompaniment, and it’s a delight.
