Let’s not waste time. This is a senseless grab-bag of Stravinsky chestnuts, played with (at best) average intensity and conducted with average insight, recorded in decent sound. The Rite of Spring is boring, plain and simple, sounding marginally under-tempo virtually throughout. The early, recently discovered Funeral Song is a non-happening. So much for Disc 1.
Disc 2 is more successful, if only because neo-classical works like Jeu de cartes essentially play themselves. Even so, the performance could use a more incisive rhythmic edge, especially in the witty concluding “deal”. No one cares about the Concerto in D, one of the composer’s most routine efforts, and Agon, like A Card Game, demands more focus and point than it receives here. None of this is bad; it’s just, well, blah.
