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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

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

Jules Verne was the inspiration for Offenbach’s opéra-féerie, premiered in 1875. The Parisian craze for this type of musical extravaganza stemmed from its impressive stage effects: for Le Voyage dans la Lune, two ballets and some twenty sets took the audience from the Earth to the Moon, successively recreating the Paris Observatory, a working blast furnace and the crater of an erupting volcano. The piece is studded with zany characters and imaginary places: a lunar landscape, a glass palace, mother-of-pearl galleries, etc. The producers even borrowed a dromedary and an ostrich from the zoo at the Jardin d’Acclimatation! To accompany this theatrical display, Offenbach composed a series of colourful, picturesque hit numbers, wittily and energetically performed here by a team of enthusiastic soloists. The Chœur et Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie are placed under the subtle and precise direction of Pierre Dumoussaud. © Bru Zane

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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

Colin Davis, currently the grand old man of Berlioz conductors, has recorded the French romantic's L'Enfance du Christ an amazing three times: first on L'oiseau-Lyre LPs (not issued on CD), then on Philips (frequently issued on LP and CD), and now on LSO Live (issued on CD with super audio surround sound capabilities). While not perhaps the most emotional Berlioz conducer in history, Davis' more measured approach suits the more meditative L'Enfance. All three of his recordings are quite fine, but the sound quality gets slightly better with each newer edition. Those equipped for SACD multichannel replay will find the LSO Live SACD provides a significant plus in atmosphere, putting the listener into the hall with the orchestra, chorus, and soloists. There are, however, other L'Enfance du Christs as good or better than Davis': Charles Münch's energetic and enjoyable recording on RCA and Andre Cluytens' elegant and opulent recording on EMI. Since the latter has perhaps the finest set of soloists in Victoria de los Angeles, Nicolai Gedda, Ernest Blanc, and Roger Soyer and comes coupled with Giulini's outstanding Chicago Symphony performance of the symphonic sections of Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, it may be many listeners' first choice. Plus, there is an interesting DVD of Münch leading a live performance from the same time as his RCA recording taped in good black and white with decent sound quality. For anyone who finds added value in straight concert videos, this one is well-worth seeing. In sum, then, Cluytens', Münch's, and any or all of Davis' L'Enfance du Christ would make a great addition to any Berlioz library. © TiVo

Though the reissue campaign that presented PJ Harvey's albums with their demos was extensive, it still didn't gather everything in her archives. She fills in those gaps with B-Sides, Demos & Rarities, a comprehensive set of harder-to-find and previously unreleased material that covers three decades of music. Kicking off with a handful of previously unreleased demos, the collection celebrates what makes each track special within Harvey's chronology. Short but fully realized versions of "Dry" and "Man-Size" reaffirm that by the time she hits the record button, she knows exactly what she's doing; the guitar and voice sketches of "Missed" and "Highway 61 Revisited" are as formidable as the finished takes; and the demo of the B-side "Me Jane" (yes, that's how thorough this set is) offers one of the Rid of Me era's catchiest songs in an even rawer state. B-Sides, Demos & Rarities reinforces just how vital Harvey's non-album tracks are to her creative trajectory. The uncanny carnival oompah of "Daddy," a "Man-Size" B-side, feels like one of the earliest forays into the eeriness that gave an extra thrill to To Bring You My Love, White Chalk, and much of Harvey's later work. She continues Is This Desire?'s experimentation on "The Bay," which contrasts songwriting befitting a classic folk ballad with pulsing keyboards and jazzy rhythms, and continues to try to make sense of the world's chaos on Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea-era material spanning the whispery Saturn return of "30" to "This Wicked Tongue," an updated expression of biblical sin, desire, and torment that delivers one of the set's most quintessentially PJ Harvey moments. Fittingly for such an anachronistic-sounding album, White Chalk's B-sides reach back to Harvey's earliest days: "Wait" and "Heaven" date back to 1989 and deliver sprightly, strummy folk-pop that's almost unrecognizable as her work. The set's previously unreleased music contains just as many revelations. One of its most notable previously missing puzzle pieces is the demo of Uh Huh Her's title track. A shockingly pure expression of rage, jealousy, and sorrow, it may have been too raw and revealing even for a PJ Harvey album, but it's a shame that it and the like-minded "Evol" didn't make the cut. Conversely, "Why'd You Go to Cleveland," a 1996 collaboration between Harvey and John Parish, and the 2012 demo "Homo Sappy Blues" are downright playful, proving the complete picture of her music includes something akin to fun. Highlights from the collection's 2010s material include "An Acre of Land," a lush ballad rooted in the British folk traditions that are just as essential to her music as punk or the blues, and the 2019 cover of Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand," which pays homage to a kindred spirit while transforming the song into something more desolate and plaintive. A must-listen for anyone following Harvey's archival series, B-Sides, Demos & Rarities serves as a fascinating parallel primer to her music and the multitudes within it.© Heather Phares /TiVo