Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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119 of 122 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superlative Music Making - Stravinsky For All Seasons, 6 Jul 2007
This must be the greatest bargin set ever released. For this price you would expect 'average' versions of Stravinsky's major works. What you get [not made clear on the box] are 22 CD's made up of all the stereo recordings made for Columbia by the composer himself; a few works directed by Robert Craft with Stravinsky in the studio; and a handful of vintage recordings of works not remade in stereo by the composer. These interpretations are of immense historical importance but, also, very fine performances in their own right. The sound is first class; the remastering also.
There is so much here to enjoy that it is difficult to single out individual works. A few of my personal favourites are 'The Firebird', 'The Rite of Spring', 'Apollo' [my desert island recording of a lovely work from Stravinsky's neo-classical period], 'The Ebony Concerto' with Benny Goodman, and 'Les Noces' with both Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland among the pianists! However, I'm sure this list will change considering just what treasure trove is included.
An essential collection at a stupid price. Buy it before Sony BMG realise their mistake.
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113 of 117 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An essential purchase, 30 Jul 2007
At last, these recordings, which were previously released as "Stravinsky - The Recorded Legacy" on Sony Classical (SX22K46290), have been reissued at a budget price. The previous incarnation (which is still available) came in a plastic presentation case with all CDs in single, double and triple jewel cases, also a very detailed booklet with all song & opera texts, synopses and translations and various background essays. That set cost between £89 and £120 depending on where you got it from. The present set dispenses with much of that in order to save at least £60.
So what you get in this release are the CDs in cardboard sleeves housed in a cardboard box, the advantage of this being that it takes up the bare minimum of space on the shelf. You also get a very minute booklet with only the details of the soloists, orchestras and recording dates and a short essay (in a few European languages). (So no song texts etc here, which is a bit annoying.) The positive side is that all the recordings are exactly the same as in the previous release, which is obviously the most important part and it's a great way of getting a lot of fantastic music for very little money (not to mention historically important versions of Stravinsky's music, conducted and/or overseen by the man himself). For me this was ideal as I wasn't really that interested in much of the vocal music so didn't really want to shell out for the more expensive set.
There's really no excuse for not buying this at this price, unless you feel you have to have all the extra packaging and paperwork which comes with the more expensive version (or you are broke, but even then you ought to try to get this).
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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Stars, with only a little disappointment..., 18 Jan 2008
I obviously agree with the enthusiasm shown by the preceding reviewers. Well beyond the bargain, this is a real cornerstone of the recording history. Many years have passed since the useless discussions in the Sixties about Stravinsky skills as a conductor, and with the grace of time we can honour now a neat, logical, unemphatic rendition of his masterworks.
However... (there is always a however), whilst the lack of the spoken and sung texts may be easily filled up with web services, Sony have not grabbed the opportunity of this compact re-edition of the 1991 Recorded Legacy megabox to heal an annoying flaw with respect to the original 1982 Centenary Edition in 31 LPs: the cancellation of ten works, which well depicted the artistic flavour of the Stravinsky years. One of the reviewers spoke of the discovery of a great pianist, Charles Rosen; well, many of the cancelled works gave exactly this type of information and feeling.
If someone is interested in knowing the details, the omitted works are: Pastorale for voice and piano (Tourel/Rogers); Tango for two pianos and Concerto for two pianos (Vronsky and Babin, the concerto however being substituted by a very old EMI recording by the Stravinskys); Serenade for piano (Rosen, also substituted by another old EMI recording by Stravinsky); Three Easy Pieces and Five Easy Pieces for four-hands piano (Gold and Fizdale); finally, and above all, the Pastorale for violin and wind quartet (Szigeti with Stravinsky and an unspecified wind quartet), the arrangement of The Star-spangled Banner (Stravinsky), the short Fanfare for a new Theatre (Heinrich and Nagel), and the Chanson Russe for violin and piano (Szigeti and Stravinsky).
Five stars, no doubt, also taking into account this imperfection. By the way, the Fanfare, the Star-spangled Banner, and the Chanson Russe are contained in another Sony box, the well known Original Jacket Collection - Stravinsky conducts Stravinsky (SX9K 64136).
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