I Sverige hopper de 100 årige ud af vinduet og forsvinder. Le Sacre fejrer sin 100 års fødselsdag i dag, og har i tidens løb fået mange til hoppe ud af vinduet, musikken er skabt i phonografens tid, så historikken kan følges fra 0 år til 100 år.
Min favorit nævnes ikke (nedenfor) Riccardo Chailly, men Bernsteins fravær i diskoteket kan ikke længere forsvares. Så det er next buy.
Lebrecht har fine pointer i nedenstående:
Stravinsky was merciless to conductors who attempted his signature work. Herbert von Karajan’s recording he dismissed as ‘too bland’, Pierre Boulez’s as ‘effortless… too fast’. Leonard Bernstein he berated for adding ‘excessive dynamics’. Even Pierre Monteux, who conducted the riotous 1913 premiere, came in for muttered criticisms of his subsequent performances.
Given that Stravinsky’s own three recordings differ widely from one another in tempi and ambience, the composer is the last person on earth to preach consistency. Still, if the man who write the music declares a performance to be downright wrong, why should we bother to listen to it?
Because it can be downwrong right. Leonard Bernstein’s 1958 Rite recording with the New York Philharmonic is a case in point. It explodes out of nowhere like a thunderstorm at sea and keeps us gripping the sides for dear life. Digitally remastered from Howard Scott’s excellent studio sessions, the woodwinds come through with wide-eyed clarity, driven almost to the limits of human breath. Bernstein liked to remind musicians that Stravinsky’s original title for the work was ‘The Kiss of the Earth’, a fusion of sex, youth and nature. This account ticks all three boxes. No matter how many Rites you own, this one is not to be resisted.
The older Stravinsky would probably have preferred Yuri Temirkanov’s 2010 recording with the St Petersburg Philharmonic – measured, manicured and unmistakably Russian in its intermittent melancholia. There are episodes of exquisite natural beauty and organic sounds. What’s missing is Bernstein’s abandon, but the details are delicious. These are two extremes of how the Rite can sound. Take your pick.
mvh. SES.
To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also. Igor Stravinsky
Vi har alle lært at skjule vore fordomme, og vi viser ikke vore forkerte meninger. PO Enquist 1976.