One year after winning a Qobuzissime for his first Sibelius monograph, Klaus Mäkelä is back with the Orchestre de Paris for a programme devoted to Stravinsky's two stage masterpieces: The Rite of Spring and The Firebird. The Rite of Spring is perhaps best remembered for its chaotic premiere in May 1913, Paris, where it famously provoked a riot amongst the audience. Over time, this event has left its mark on history as one of the most notorious artistic scandals of the 20th century. It’s impossible to overlook this vital work today, and yet its canonisation has arguably caused its monstrous and archaic character to fade out of our collective memory.Somehow, Mäkelä manages to completely restore the cathartic dimension of the piece. From the meticulous choice of tempos to the contrasts between the different orchestral sections, every measure of the score is rich and invigorating. This young Finn is a true master, revealing himself as a conductor of rare sensitivity and incisive vision that commands with confidence. On the flipside, The Firebird is inspired by a Russian folk tale in which Ivan Tsarevich battles the demigod Kashchei. Under Mäkelä, it becomes a grandiose festival of light and sound; a ballet imbued with a visceral sense of urgency that keeps the listener captivated throughout. © Pierre Lamy/Qobuz

Denied early in his career by Philharmonia Orchestra's management, Sir Simon Rattle realized his dream of programming a concert of these three early Stravinsky ballets in a 2017 festival that launched his time as the music director of the venerable London Symphony Orchestra. It is indeed an interesting concept as the audience is given a chance to hear the harmonic and stylistic changes of Stravinsky's writing in these ballets, which were, incredibly, written within five years. All three of these works were premiered at Paris' Ballets Russes. The Firebird, which premiered in 1910, launched a productive relationship between Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev, the company's founder. The music of The Firebird stole the show, prompting the composer to craft his own suites from the score, and it remains among his most popular and enduring works. After the success of The Firebird, Stravinsky began to compose The Rite of Spring, but he set it aside to work on a konzertstück for piano and orchestra with the images of a puppet come to life in mind. This imagery put the story of Petrushka in the eye of Diaghilev. Petrushka is set at an 1830s Shrovetide Fair and follows the exploits of a puppeteer who brings three puppets (Petrushka, the Moor, and the Ballerina) to life with his flute. Stravinsky uses folk songs cleverly throughout and departs from the more Rimsky-Korsakov-influenced writing of The Firebird, including the use of bitonality, which he took even further in The Rite of Spring. The Rite depicts a paganistic sacrifice to usher in spring, and its use of pulsating rhythms and brash harmonies famously created an uproar at its debut (the level of which is still debated). Rattle and the London Symphony perform Stravinsky's later revised versions of Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, and all three powerful and highly emotional works are well executed. © TiVo

Ever since stumbling upon a freak hit in 1999 with the moronically catchy advert soundtrack "Flat Beat," Mr. Oizo (aka French film director Quentin Dupieux) has been one of dance music's most unlikely, even reluctant stars. He's never come close to attempting to replicate the single's success; his subsequent albums and EPs have been knotty, convoluted, and perplexing. They've also generally been exciting and innovative (albeit wildly inconsistent), and have influenced numerous schools of beatmakers. Oizo's sixth non-soundtrack full-length contains far more guests than anything else he's released, and while it might seem on the surface like he's making a delayed bid for commercial viability, one listen affirms that he's still playing by nobody's rules but his own. The majority of the tracks are under three minutes and they often consist of choppy disco samples set at midtempo. The most fractured piece is the minute-long "Oiseaux" (the correct spelling of his moniker is French for "birds"), which rapidly channel surfs between prog-fusion guitar, soul vocals, zippy disco strings, and other sounds. The most vocal-heavy song is "Freezing Out," which features Peaches doing her thing over a slow, bass-heavy groove collage that has some sort of Paul's Boutique/"Going Back to Cali" thing going on. "Hand in the Fire," Oizo's collaboration with pop star Charli XCX, appears near the end of the album, but it might as well be a completely different song than the version that was released as a single in 2015. While that one was a proper pop tune (a rarity in Dupieux's catalog if there ever was one), this take only uses a few lines of Charli's vocals before a stomping beat and siren-like EDM synths take over. He attempts to play it even straighter on "The End of the World," which starts out as a fun rave flashback before a blurry voice repeats "now it's gonna be exciting to watch the end of the world." Unfortunately, the track settles into a predictable dance beat after that and doesn't do much else. Then again, considering that the track was co-produced by Skrillex, it's a relief that it didn't end up being more obnoxious. Oizo fares much better when he's being his own twisted self. "Your Liver" continues his longstanding usage of cheeky computer voices, proposing "give me your liver and I'll give you my heart" over a vaguely industrial-ish beat. "Goulag Drums" is a head-spinner with fast, metallic drums diced with precision. "No Tony" is a venture into French rap, with a sunny, lighthearted lyric saying something about pepperoni pizza over a very MF Doom-like beat. All Wet will undoubtedly confound anyone who might still be expecting another "Flat Beat" out of Oizo (although most of those people probably stopped paying attention ages ago), or any EDM fans curiously tuning in because of the track with Skrillex. For anyone who shares Dupieux's warped sense of humor and has been eagerly following his career, this is yet another fascinatingly weird Mr. Oizo album.© Paul Simpson /TiVo

Post-Romantic dazzle in The Firebird (1910), neo-classical elegance in Apollon musagète (1928): Igor Stravinsky is revealed here in all his diverse genius. Between the shimmering world of Russian folk traditions and the Apollonian cosmos of Greek mythology, he creates two radically different and protean musical universes. For their second recording with harmonia mundi, Gustavo Gimeno and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg reveal the splendours of these two major ballets of the early twentieth century. © harmonia mundi

The years have seen Pierre Boulez record for CBS, Erato, EMI, and Philips, among other labels, but his most consistent and critically praised work has appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, where he has conducted the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and his own Ensemble InterContemporain in many successful performances. These ensembles are heard on this trimline, six-CD box set of Igor Stravinsky's major works, which brings together Boulez's recordings of L'oiseau de feu, Petrushka, Le Sacre du printemps, L'histoire du Soldat, the symphonies, concertos, and other works, recorded between 1980 and 1996. As one of the leading champions of modernism, first as a composer and essayist, then as a prominent conductor, Boulez is regarded as an authority on Stravinsky's oeuvre, and it is difficult to imagine many conductors who have a better understanding of the technical and stylistic issues that affect performances. Boulez is also famous for his precision and meticulousness, which make the details stand out clearly in the rhythmically complex and texturally dense orchestral scores of the ballets, and yet seem so delicate and exact in the concertos and pieces for smaller ensembles. That Boulez has inspired a devoted international following is beyond question, so this collection of some of his finest recordings will appeal to his admirers and the wider circle of Stravinsky fans.© TiVo

Alexander Ridha's first full-length as Boys Noize proves he's capable of producing big hearty electronic beats in the vein of the Crystal Method and especially Daft Punk, if the opener, "& Down," and the smooth, stellar "Don't Believe the Hype" are any indications. Weaving a mix of melodic electronica with classic house, the momentum continues with "Lava Lava" but tends to sag with the rather formulaic, bleep-heavy "The Battery." Fortunately, "Oh!," with its talk-box intro, gets the album back on track, preceding the first true highlight: the punchy, infectious "Let's Buy Happiness," which resembles work by the Chemical Brothers. Another highlight is the adventurous "Vergiftet," which relies on a rock-solid foundation for its success. Other portions of the record are solid but not memorable, a good example being the retro-tinged, ambient-disco flavor of "Shine Shine." Although "Frau" sounds like a blend of Kraftwerk and a sedated Rammstein, Boys Noize once again strikes pay dirt with a remix of "My Moon My Man," featuring Feist. © Jason MacNeil /TiVo