Review by: David Hurwitz
Artistic Quality: 6
Sound Quality: 8
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.
Buy Now from Arkiv Music
Recording Details:
Reference Recording: None for this collection- STRAVINSKY, IGOR:The Rite of Spring; Chant funèbre; Jeu de cartes; Concerto in D; Agon
- PentaTone - 5186 650
- SACD
