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Track Listings
| 1. Introduction |
| 2. The Augurs of Spring: Dances of the Young Girls |
| 3. Ritual of Abduction |
| 4. Spring Rounds |
| 5. Ritual of the Rival Tribes |
| 6. Procession of the Sage |
| 7. The Sage |
| 8. Dance of the Earth |
| 9. Introduction |
| 10. Mystic Circles of the Young Girls |
| 11. Glorification of the Chosen One |
| 12. Evocation of the Ancestors |
| 13. Ritual Action of the Ancestors |
| 14. Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One) |
| 15. Le Poème de l'Extase, Op.54 |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy are, in many ways, the perfect coupling. Both works are, in their way, extreme, and both works suit Gergiev's unparalleled ability for penetrating to the heart of a score. He paints the Rite of Spring in vivid, almost garish colours, at all times reading the score afresh. Philips' superb recording successfully conveys both the visceral impact of "Spring Rounds" and the sheer raw energy of "Augurs of Spring". There is a sense of inevitability about the "Ritual Dance of the Ancestors"; the Sacrificial Dance, which follows, has its tension heightened because of (rather than despite) Gergiev's slightly deliberate tread. Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy is late romanticism writ large. Above and beyond the perfumed sonorities, Gergiev identifies and projects an underlying disquiet, from the dark trumpet figures through to the shattering climax. At times the Kirov Orchestra is positively luminous. It is Gergiev's long-range grasp of the piece that is most impressive: the resultant cumulative effect is close to overpowering. --Colin Clarke
Review
When you look at the growing catalogue of key Russian works recorded by the Kirov Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, sooner or later you realise that there's a key work missing - especially after their ravishingly beautiful recording of Stravinsky's Firebird. Where's The Rite of Spring? Surely this is the ideal vehicle for this colourful orchestra and its theatrical conductor, whose history and traditions tie them to the ballet.
The wait is over: Gergiev's Rite is out, and it's as thrilling as anyone could have wished, a riot of rhythms and colours dispatched with a heady mixture of virtuosity and controlled savagery. The recording is astonishing, there's so much detail and a natural sense of air around everything, yet the intimate intensity of the orchestra pit is never sacrificed for the broader soundstage. The bass drum and timps have real impact in the Ritual of abduction, the earthiness of the double basses in the Spring rounds has to be heard to be believed, the bass clarinet adds a pungent depth to the winds, and the brass are truly brazen, howling at the heart of the ritual.
This is a sacrifice you can feel happening in front of you - Stravinsky's score throbs with animal life until the very last chord...and that's the only moment I struggled with Gergiev; he makes us wait a full five seconds for the final chord! Too much for me, but I can't deny that the tension is held all the way to that last massive hammerblow.
It's all too easy to go on about The Rite and ignore the coupling, Scriabin's The Poem of Ecstasy, but that wouldn't be fair: it's the kind of luscious performance that might have you salivating over the sheer beauty of the sounds Gergiev coaxes from the Kirov Orchestra. Everyone who still thrills to Stravinsky's masterpiece should hear this new recording; anyone who thinks The Rite has lost its power through over-familiarity should buy it as a tonic, and feel the adrenaline flow once more. --Andrew McGregor
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rough Hewn Rite - the essence of the work,
By
This review is from: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Audio CD)
Valery Gergiev is a passionate conductor and it is somewhat of a surprise to hear his interpretation of Stravinsky's landmark work. This is an unusally quiet, brooding birth, less the outwardly dramatic, sonic bursting performances to which we've grown accustomed. While we wait for what Salonen and the LA Phil do with this work in the new acoutically wondrous Disney Hall in Los Angeles there is much to be learned and absorbed by this magnificently understated recording. Gergiev presents the ballet score more as a symphonic poem, uncovering many delicate moments rarely heard in this masterpiece. Not that he is afraid of massive outbursts - those are captured by him in this spacious recording brilliantly. The Kirov Orchestra obviously has played this piece countless times, evident in the inner voices of the orchestra sounding so completely secure. Just take the time to listen to this performance in a darkened room at night, and the effect is astonishingly mysterious and strangely "beautiful".The Scriabin without the light effects has always seemed to me to be a work truly created for the recording industry! There is little structure to POEM OF ECSTASY but it is brimming over in lush colors and eroticism. Not a great work, but Gergiev plays it for all its kitschy goodness and makes it wholly believable. This recording of the POEM is a gold standard for orchestral colors.
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sonic spectacular and a really personal interpretation,
By
This review is from: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Audio CD)
Previous reviewers on Amazon.uk are uniformly positive about this disc. There are far more reviews on Amazon.com but they include some ridiculously harsh and derogatory judgements about the sound, the interpretation and the playing. Too many people on Amazon get their kicks by being superior and snooty about first-rate artists, so let's dispense with their criticisms first. OK; the tam-tam is momentarily lost and out of time right at the beginning of the "Dance of the Earth" and just occasionally the horns are underlit by the engineer, but these tiny flaws pale into insignificance beside the raw energy, commitment and passion of this performance. What so many dolts call "mistakes" are the results of Gergiev's interpretation; he is no slave to the score but uses it as a springboard to deliver a thrilling, newly thought-out version of this seminal work. Thus the cross-rhythms are played with, unwritten pauses are introduced (as before the final chord) and tempi subtly distorted to create specific effects: that's what a conductor is supposed to do, I thought, as long as it is artistically justified - and here it certainly is. I ask you, is it really likely that a conductor of Gergiev's eminence, directing his own orchestra, who have played this difficult piece countless times, would mess up so badly given three days to record less than an hour's music? The sound is an engineering triumph; so much is intense and startling, and so much detail emerges within a dynamic spectrum that ranges from a true ppp to a real fff that this is an audio-buff's dream. The clarity of the sound allows us to hear that Gergiev is at times a bit vocal, as is his wont, but he's hardly the first conductor to supply a few ostinato grunts. To cap it off, we have spectacular performance of Scriabin's post-Wagnerian/Debussyian indulgence "The Poem of Ecstasy": a lush, dreamy account which flowers into a magnificent climax.Ignore the carpers; this is a superb disc.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not "clinically clean" but passionate,
By
This review is from: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Audio CD)
Thank you to the previous 4 reviewers for steering me into buying this recording.I absolutely LOVE the four-hands piano arrangement of Le Sacre Du Printemps and have lost myself many times in the complexity and dynamic of the recording by Benjamin Frith and Peter Hill. To be honest, I have avoided orchestral recordings because of this. I finally wanted to take the leap into a full orchestral recording, but found many versions terribly "mechanical" and "clinical". Every note in exactly the right place, but somehow shallow with little character and minimal depth of feeling. Gergiev's interpretation is challenging for me as the tempo, rhythm and weight of many passages feel very different from the piano arrangement, but the passion and earthiness of this performance took my breath away and I am growing to love it as much as the piano version - for different reasons and in a different way but equally. As has been mentioned, criticism has been thrown at this recording because it is not as technically precise as some. Surely that is the beauty of this performance. A passionate, characterful, human and raw reading of a powerful milestone composition. I can't recommend this CD highly enough.
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