Stravinski: 3 Symphonies, Ode, Le baiser de la fée

Album Description

It is always surprising to be confronted with the 'early' works of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), when our appreciation of the composer is inevitably measured by his ballet The Rite of Spring (1913), a flash of genius by a young man in his early thirties, from which the musical world of the 20th and 21st centuries has still not recovered. Six years earlier, in 1907, the Russian had completed his first major work, his Symphony in E flat major, which he dedicated to his master Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. A somewhat lengthy work, which sounds like a study exercise in terms of form, with a truly Russian Scherzo and which is unquestionably influenced by the lesser-known symphonies of his master and those of Borodin. Stravinsky's first opus is distinguished by quite original ideas in his orchestration, the writing for the brass section revealing at times, a desire to be elsewhere, which will materialise more precisely in the Scherzo fantastique (Op. 3). When Stravinsky composed his two other symphonies, he was in the United States and had nothing left to prove, his genius totally assured. One after another came the Symphony in C in 1939-1940 (shortly after the death of his daughter, his wife and then his mother), and the Symphony in Three Movements, between 1941 and 1945. We have a tendency to neglect the first two, in favour of the radical Symphony in Three Movements which clearly reassured those music lovers who wanted to hear Stravinsky again as a revolutionary and enfant terrible in the 1910s. The Symphony in C, not sparing with melodic motifs (Larghetto concertante) is a truly neo-classical work despite its many sections which openly introduce the repetitive and the minimalist; its twin, based more on highly sequential and even more fragmented motifs, finds in its relentless rhythm a character clearly reminiscent of the Parisian ballets.

All of Sir Alexander Gibson's (1926-1995) Stravinsky works—for the Chandos label—are at the pinnacle of the discography. The selection reviewed here includes the complete double LP released in 1982 with the three Symphonies and the Ode from 1943. With his assured genius, Sir Alexander Gibson unifies the three symphonies: his ardent touches, his sense of rhythm (always implacable but never dry or cold), his orchestra literally on fire, where the timbres burst out like razor blades, remain without equal in the world of discography. Suddenly, these scores come to life, becoming imaginary ballets—Symphony in Three Movements here remains totally spellbinding. The tenderness (Eulogy) and vigorous lyricism (Eclogue) that Gibson unleashes in the Ode, as in the Andante of the Symphony in Three Movements, are in reality no less to be treasured. Be it noted that Gibson has also recorded the Pulcinella Suite and Stravinsky's Danses Concertantes: imbued here with a similar intensity and presence (English Chamber Orchestra, 13-14 July 1982).

As part of this reissue, Chandos has decided to complement the magical Gibson LP with very beautiful versions of Symphonies of Wind Instruments conducted by Simon Rattle (1977, with the Nash Ensemble, the recording released later, in 1982, as part of a Chandos LP titled ‘Stravinsky: A Tapestry of Songs and Chamber Music’), and of The Fairy's Kiss with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Neeme Järvi (1984). © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz