Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps

Antal Doráti, Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Released on 01/01/2011 by Decca Music Group Ltd.
Main artists: Detroit Symphony Orchestra Antal Doráti
Genre: Classical
Distinctions: The Qobuz Essential Discography

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Sublimely recorded, these orchestral performances from the latter years of the Hungarian conductor Antal Doráti (1906-1988), on Philips with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and on Decca with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, are a treasure trove of poetry and remain, for the most part, models of spirit and of style.

Ivor Stravinsky's great ballets, starting with The Firebird—of which the 1959 recording for Mercury of Doráti conducting the London Symphony Orchestra also remains the absolute point of reference—particularly sharpened the fiery sense of theatre and narrative that the Hungarian conductor had developed and perfected during his years conducting ballet between 1937 and 1945. Doráti saw the orchestra as a stage on which characters came to life: each section of the orchestra, each instrumentalist, had to evoke, depict, and tell their story. Added to this is a quality that few conductors possess at this level: the ability to reveal immediately, through the magic of balance and instrumental equilibrium, the singularity of a piece of music.

In this regard, you will be struck by this recording of The Firebird, made during a three-day session on 24-26 October 1982 (at United Artists' Auditorium in Detroit). Antal Doráti's direction, which is very fluid and not at all univocal, reveals with great subtlety the genius of the young Stravinsky of 1909-1910; in particular, he does not exaggerate the rhythmic element. His Danse infernale de tous les sujets de Kachtcheï is not in any way here a forerunner of the Danse sacrale, it still feeds on an imagination derived from Rimsky-Korsakov, and the way Doráti details the opening bars of the Danse infernale bears witness to this, being taken at a moderate tempo allowing the instrumentalists to clearly articulate the motif, which is split between several sections. This helps to refine their sense of evocation by further sharpening the timbre of their instruments. Here Doráti does not in any way negate the Rimsky-Korsakov influences, and all the lyrical passages, from the Supplications de l'Oiseau de feu to the Khorovode (Ronde) des princesses through to the sublime theme of the Mort de Kachtcheï are of a dazzling poetry, and immediately remind us, by the work on the expressions as well as the textures, of Rimsky-Korsakov's last scores, on which the young Stravinsky and his colleagues in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century would have been nurtured.

During the 11-13 May 1981, along with his legendary Copland recordings (Dance Symphony, Rodeo, El Salón México), Doráti returned to the Rite of Spring. His third recording, after his two previous recordings of 1953 (mono) and 1957 (stereo) in Minneapolis for Mercury. The Firebird was by then left far behind him. The Hungarian conductor creates a staggering explosion of sounds and harmonies, and as published in "Les Indispensables du disque compact" in 1995, "What is immediately striking about The Rite according to Doráti, is the importance of the colours, the diversity of raw, fauvist hues and the strident colour harmonies that intermingle and fight each other. This predominance of colour results in a version of extravagant fullness of sound, almost inaudible through the power of its saturation”. In particular, it is still thrilling to hear the conductor's touch in the last ten minutes of the work, starting with the l’Action rituelle des ancêtres. Very few conductors manage to make clearly audible all the intervals inherent in the initial chord, obstinately repeated, and to add such a diversity of timbres and textures in parallel. Dazzling, indeed. The Danse sacrale is violent, raw, and yet far removed from the more unambiguous rhythmic madness of the 1957 Minneaopolis version. Here, the Chosen One is truly sacrificed. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz

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Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

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The Firebird (Igor Stravinsky)

1. Introduction

Antal Doráti

00:02:42