Every note, every phrase is rite and dyonisiac rythm and volcanic force in these two interpretations of Le Sacre du Printemps, put both side-by-side in the same disc, and with the same orchestra, the Philharmonia in top form. Obviously, the quality of sound is better in the 1959 stereo recording than in the mono 1951. But the very end of the work -the last seven minutes- in the 1951 recording is the most exciting, orgiastic, I ever heard, more even than the excellent Boulez's first performance with the Cleveland Orchestra from 1969. The differences between the two Markevich versions are not radical, but enough to justify the idea. The great performers of Le sacre du printemps are legion: Boulez, Monteux, Stravinsky, Dorati, Fricsay, Muti, Rattle, Gergiev, Thomas, Dudamel, but at the top of this Olympus reigns Igor Markevich, a man who knew every note of the piece, so, that in 1949 he sent Stravinsky a list of mistakes he had noticed in the recently revised edition. Moreover, there's never for a moment any hint of routine reading of this classic of the modern orchestral repertoire. In short, an exceptional disc with a sole question: which is the bonus: the 1951 version or the 1959?
