Stravinsky: Firebird, Rite Of Spring, Persephone / Tilson Thomas, San Francisco SO [Box set]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Here's a Stravinsky set to raise eyebrows. Where is Petrouchka, the standard coupling for Firebird and Rite in collections of the great early Stravinsky ballet scores? Instead, we get the too rarely heard Perséphone, and it's the highlight of the set. Premiered in 1934 to a text by André Gide, Perséphone is a retelling of the Greek fertility myth of the earth's winter death and spring renewal. The tale drew from Stravinsky some of his most delicate and beautiful music in the neoclassical style of the period, a sibling to the ballets Apollo and Orpheus and the cantata Oedipus Rex (it also includes string figures that recall those works).

Stephanie Cosserat, in the title role, is a youthfully persuasive narrator, very different from Vera Zorina's oracular reciter on Stravinsky's own recording. Stuart Neill's tenor is a big plus, and the orchestra and chorus play and sing with involvement. Michael Tilson Thomas brings out the cool tenderness of the score, and the recording, made at a live performance, is truthful. His Firebird is lushly dramatic, and the Rite's barbaric thrust is leavened by some soulful wind playing. Recorded competition in the two ballets is fierce (along with Gergiev's recent Firebird on Philips, there are classic versions by Ansermet, Dorati, Haitink, and others, including the composer) but Perséphone makes this set an attractive proposition. --Dan Davis

Stravinsky: Firebird, Rite Of Spring, Persephone / Tilson Thomas, San Francisco SO, Music, Igor Stravinsky, Igor Stravinsky, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Stuart Neill, Michael Tilson Thomas, 20th/21st Century Ballet, Ballet, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Music Theater, Musical Theater, Orchestral & Symphonic

Stravinsky: Firebird, Rite Of Spring, Persephone / Tilson Thomas, San Francisco SO
Average customer rating:

A Colorist Take on the Rite at Last

One of the greatest recordings of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps.....

Purposely pedantic

Breathtaking

This only concerns The Firebird

Stravinsky: Firebird, Rite Of Spring, Persephone / Tilson Thomas, San Francisco SO
Igor Stravinsky , San Francisco Symphony Orchestra , and Michael Tilson Thomas
Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00000IOCZ
Release Date: 1999-04-27

Tracks:

L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Introduction
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): The Enchanted Garden Of Kaschei
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Apparition Of The Firebird, Followed By Ivan Tsarevitch
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Dance Of The Firebird
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Capture Of The Firebird By Ivan Tsarevitch
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Plea Of The Firebird; Apparition Of The Thirteen Enchanted Princesses
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Play Of The Princesses With The Golden Apples (Scherzo)
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Sudden Apparition Of Ivan Tsarevitch
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Chorovod (Round) Of The Princesses
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Sunrise; Ivan Tsarevitch Penetrates The Palace Of Kaschei
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Magical Chimes; Apparition Of The Monsters; Guards Of Kashchei And Capture Of Ivan Tsarevitch
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Dance Of The Suite Of Kashchei Enchanted By The Firebird
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Infernal Dance Of All The Subjects Of Kashchei
L'Oiseau De Feu (The Firebird): Dissappearance Of The Palace And Of The Magic Spells Of Kashchei; Animation Of The Petrified Knights; All Rejoice

Tracks:

Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 1: Adoration Of The Earth - Introduction
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 1: Adoration Of The Earth - The Augurs Of Spring; Dances Of The Young Girls
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 1: Adoration Of The Earth - Ritual Of Abduction
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 1: Adoration Of The Earth - Spring Rounds
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 1: Adoration Of The Earth - Ritual Of The Rival Tribes
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 1: Adoration Of The Earth - Procession Of The Sage
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 1: Adoration Of The Earth - The Sage
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 1: Adoration Of The Earth - Dance Of The Earth
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 2: The Sacrifice - Introduction
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 2: The Sacrifice - Mystic Circles Of The Young Girls
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 2: The Sacrifice - Glorification Of The Chosen One
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 2: The Sacrifice - Evocation Of The Ancestors
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 2: The Sacrifice - Ritual Action Of The Ancestors
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite Of Spring): Part 2: The Sacrifice - Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One)

Tracks:

Persephone: The Abduction Of Persephone - I. Stravinsky
Persephone: Persephone In The Underworld - I. Stravinsky
Persephone: Persephone Reborn - I. Stravinsky

Amazon.com essential recording

Here's a Stravinsky set to raise eyebrows. Where is Petrouchka, the standard coupling for Firebird and Rite in collections of the great early Stravinsky ballet scores? Instead, we get the too rarely heard Perséphone, and it's the highlight of the set. Premiered in 1934 to a text by André Gide, Perséphone is a retelling of the Greek fertility myth of the earth's winter death and spring renewal. The tale drew from Stravinsky some of his most delicate and beautiful music in the neoclassical style of the period, a sibling to the ballets Apollo and Orpheus and the cantata Oedipus Rex (it also includes string figures that recall those works).

Stephanie Cosserat, in the title role, is a youthfully persuasive narrator, very different from Vera Zorina's oracular reciter on Stravinsky's own recording. Stuart Neill's tenor is a big plus, and the orchestra and chorus play and sing with involvement. Michael Tilson Thomas brings out the cool tenderness of the score, and the recording, made at a live performance, is truthful. His Firebird is lushly dramatic, and the Rite's barbaric thrust is leavened by some soulful wind playing. Recorded competition in the two ballets is fierce (along with Gergiev's recent Firebird on Philips, there are classic versions by Ansermet, Dorati, Haitink, and others, including the composer) but Perséphone makes this set an attractive proposition. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

A Colorist Take on the Rite at Last.......2007-04-24

Personally, this is my favorite recording of the Rite of Spring and The Firebird. I am not going to say that it's the best because that leads to most of the garbage you see in the other reviews. While I still enjoy the recordings Stravinsky himself lead, Boulez's interpretation, and especially Igor Markevich's interpretation, I find no difficulty recommending this set above them all. To put it simply, Stravinsky's music has never sounded better. This recording is rhythically precise, meticulously colored with beautiful solo and section playing in the winds and brass and yet still maintains the character and barbaric drive we have come to expect from this music. I agree that this recording does not have the sheer brutal intensity of some of the aforementioned recordings and especially that of Gergiev. However, this recording shows the inner workings of the piece and gives the music even more character by highlighting the orchestrational inventiveness of the work. While the recording of Persephone is wonderful and shares the traits already mentioned in the Firebird and Rite of Spring recordings, the work itself, to me, does not meet the same high level as the other two. And while it is good to have a great recording of this seldom heard work, I would have preferred a reading of Petrouchka instead. But Whatever! This recording is still great with fantastic playing and Godly recorded sound. This is one of the better purchases I have made. Enjoy!

One of the greatest recordings of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps............2006-03-06

This is definitely one of the best Rite of Spring recordings out on the market today. I highly reccommend this recording to anyone who is looking for an electrifying...amazing performance of the Rite. Please see my review under Levi's (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra--Telarc) recording of the Rite of Spring for more information and a list of other recordings I highly reccommend of the Rite of Spring.

Purposely pedantic.......2005-06-02

I have listened to these recordings now perhaps 7 times since I bought them. On the whole they are quite fine. The dynamics are well presented and the flow of the thought and feel of the music seems genuine and faithful to the score.
However, let me suggest that in the case of Persephone, the conductor has no clothes. Oh, the performance is probably the most brilliant I shall ever hear, hopefully the last. The conducting is most likely near to perfection as is the singing. But try as you might, take a mediocre work, and that's what it is... and perform away...it will still be mediocre.
It was an unfortunate collaboration...Igor-Andre. It is far from Gide's best work and as far as I'm concerned not even worth mentioning for Stravinsky's, although I have to admit I've never sung the music myself as some apparently have.
Although I admire MTT greatly and have many of his recordings, it is this need to be pedantic which I find annoying. Bernstein did it with panache in a time when so many knew so little. But MTT is always trying to cram it down my throat, including when we go to performances in Davies.

Breathtaking.......2004-01-24

Probably one of my biggest regrets in my life was to be a few months too young to be on this recording with my boy chorus. Anyways, it is absolutely superb, especially Persephone (but then, I am partial, having sung it a few years later with the same symphony). This entire set is simply gorgeous.

This only concerns The Firebird.......2003-08-02

This very first ballet by Stravinsky, ordered by Diaghilev and the Paris Russian Ballets, is based on a Russian tale about a magic bird that is captured by a hunter Ivan and that pleads for its release. It all starts with a very immense evocation of the empty tundra in which the hunter walks with careful steps and that he scans with his eyes and ears. The bird appears with a Russian dance that is light, energetic, bright and airlike. Ivan accepts to release the bird in exchange of one of its magical feathers. This whole bargain is evoked in variations on the theme of the bird, variations that are charming, captivating, fascinating to the point of mesmerizing Ivan who accepts the deal. Then this Ivan meets a Princess who is under the yoke of a magician, Kastchey. Ivan accepts to remain with the Princess in order to free her and he is imprisoned at once by Kastchey. But the Princess fascinates the magician with her sensual and powerful dancing that is hammering like the pulsating heart of the poor magician who is entranced and hypnotized into joining the dance. The dance then becomes a devilish macabre farandole out of which the magician cannot get any longer. During that time Ivan has found the egg that contains the magician's soul in a very soft and melodious lullaby that both depicts the soul in its tranquil captivity and the peace surrounding the hiding place of the egg. It is like the empty space of the cosmos that is only disrupted by the power of the bird's feather and its magic that breaks the egg. By liberating the soul Ivan liberates the Princess and himself and this cosmic void gets some musical flesh back as if the dance of the bird reappeared in the vast immensity of the plain. It is like a triumphing march of the liberated heroes to reconquer the world, though the very ending sounds somewhat unharmonic and frightening as if the world contained some new unknown danger somewhere.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

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