The centenary of the première of
Le Sacre du Printemps will
doubtless
occasion the release of a lot of recordings - both new accounts and
reissues.
Here is a contribution from France.
Tugan Sokhiev has been Music Director of the Orchestre National du
Capitole
de Toulouse since 2008. I don’t recall hearing any of their work
together
but I’ve read good things about some of their previous releases.
David
Barker was very complimentary about a pairing of Mussorgsky and
Tchaikovsky
(
review)
though Stephen Francis Vasta felt the Tchaikovsky symphony had been
committed
to disc prematurely (
review).
Sokhiev’s pairing of Prokofiev and Rachmaninov also drew a positive
response
in these pages (
review).
So with his credentials well established in Russian repertoire I was keen
to
experience him in these two great Stravinsky scores.
The 1919 suite from
L’Oiseau de Feu is well done. Sokhiev and
his
players relish the colourful nature of the score and impart good
atmosphere.
There’s a good air of mystery at the very start, even if I have
heard
more hushed accounts of the opening. The Firebird’s Variation music
is
glittering and airborne. The
Ronde des princesses is beautifully
done;
the graceful oboe solo is just the first of a series of excellent solos
from
various members of the Toulouse orchestra. The primitive savagery of
Kastchei’s
dance is well realised while the
Berceuse is gorgeous, the solo
bassoon
lulling us all nicely into drowsiness. Perhaps the start of the
Final
is a trifle on the slow side but that’s the only minor criticism
that
I have of an excellent and enjoyable performance.
The centenary of
Le Sacre du Printemps and the myriad recordings
that
have been issued down the years - over forty have been reviewed on
MusicWeb
International alone - prompts one or two thoughts. For example, has it
lost
its power to shock? Readers will have their own views on that. It
certainly
seems to have lost its power to stretch orchestras as playing standards
have
risen. It was instructive for me to
review
not long ago Pierre Monteux’s 1929 recording of the work. That was
one
of the first recordings - perhaps the very first - of
Le Sacre and
while
it’s creditable in many ways and a fascinating, valuable document
the
strain on the players is palpable at times. Fast forward some eighty years
and
not only do the world’s professional orchestras regard it as a
repertoire
piece but youth orchestras too, such as what was still in 2010 the
Simón
Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, take it in their stride (
review).
So I didn’t expect to detect any sign of strain among the Orchestre
National
du Capitole de Toulouse - and I didn’t find any.
This is an impressive reading, well recorded. The sound quality helps to
ensure
that everything that’s going on in the Introduction to Part I
registers
carefully, the parts well balanced by Sokhiev. The stamping chords impel
the
music of
Augures printaniers along excitingly. I had the impression
that
the tempo for the start of
Jeu de rapt was a little on the steady
side.
However, by compensation, this means that when the music erupts a little
further
on in the section (track 11, 2:12) it’s invested with baleful power
-
the trombone
glissandi stand out menacingly.
Danse de la
terre
is driven and frenetic. The Introduction to Part II is refined and
fastidiously
balanced while
Glorification de l’élue sounds
primitive
and barbed. Sokhiev handles the concluding
Danse sacrale very well:
this
tumultuous section is vivid and physically exciting but, like the entire
performance,
it is kept under tight discipline. This is not, perhaps, what my colleague
Dan
Morgan has referred to elsewhere as “a life-changing
Rite”
but it’s still a pretty good version, very well played and conducted
with
excellent attention to detail.
That attention to detail on Sokhiev’s part comes across in the
accompanying
DVD in which we see a live performance of the work. The visual
presentation
is conventional in that we see a straightforward film of the concert. If
that
sounds dull it isn’t and the film is mercifully free of any
gimmickry,
allowing the viewer to focus without distraction on a very good
performance.
I have included in the heading to this review all the information about
the
audio recording and the DVD that I’ve been able to glean from
Naïve’s
documentation, which is long on arty drawings representing the two ballets
but
a little short on some of the hard information that collectors need. So,
for
instance, I can’t tell you whether the performance of
Le
Sacre
that you hear on the CD is identical to the one on the DVD or whether
it’s
a different recording made under studio conditions; I suspect it’s
the
latter.
I’m sure that 2013 will bring us many more recordings of
Le
Sacre,
some new and some from the archives. This release from Toulouse gets the
centenary
off to a strong start.
John Quinn
Masterwork Index:
L’Oiseau
de Feu ~~
Le
Sacre
du Printemps
