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Composed by Stravinsky in 1933 in the wake of the French oratorio fashion whose figureheads are Milhaud (Les Choéphores) and Honegger (Le Roi David, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher), and his own Oedipus Rex, Perséphone sanctifies the French period of the Russian composer, after he left Switzerland and before he settled definitely in the United States.
Ordered by Ida Rubinstein, to whom music history already owed Debussy’s Martyre de Saint-Sébastien and Ravel’s Boléro, this melodrama, profane in its story and hybrid regarding its musical form, glorifies spring -without it being a new “Consecration” in its language) on a text by André Gide, thus prolonging the emotion created by the novel Si le grain ne meurt. The three acts of the work (Perséphone enlevée, Perséphone aux enfers, Perséphone renaissante) are close to human nature and psyche with an empathy reinforced by Stravinsky’s music.
Conceived for a tenor (Eumolpe), a narrator, a mixed chorus, a chidren’s chorus and an orchestra, this work, so original in the production of its author, has however never found its audience. People long blamed Stravinsky for wringing the neck of the prosody of Gide’s text without understanding that it was however one of its more sensitive works, possessed with a melodic verve, a clear lyricism and a warmth for which he wasn’t known for.
Under Esa-Pekka Salonen’s inspired and aerial baton, Perséphone finds here a second youth which might finally allow it to impose itself to a new generation of music lovers. This “strange profane mass” (as described by Marcel Marnat) is probably one of the most touching works of a composer that is always looking for new springs. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Perséphone, Pt. 1 (Igor Stravinsky)
Andrew Staples, Tenor (Eumolphe) - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Pauline Cheviller, Narrator (Perséphone) - Andrew Staples, Tenor (Eumolphe) - Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Andrew Staples, Tenor (Eumolphe) - Pauline Cheviller, Narrator (Perséphone) - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Perséphone, Pt. 2 (Igor Stravinsky)
Pauline Cheviller, Narrator (Perséphone) - Andrew Staples, Tenor (Eumolphe) - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Pauline Cheviller, Narrator (Perséphone) - Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Andrew Staples, Tenor (Eumolphe) - Pauline Cheviller, Narrator (Perséphone) - Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Pauline Cheviller, Narrator (Perséphone) - Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Andrew Staples, Tenor (Eumolphe) - Pauline Cheviller, Narrator (Perséphone) - Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Perséphone, Pt. 3 (Igor Stravinsky)
Andrew Staples, Tenor (Eumolphe) - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Finnish National Opera Children's Chorus - Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Pauline Cheviller, Narrator (Perséphone) - Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Andrew Staples, Tenor (Eumolphe) - Finnish National Opera Chorus - Finnish National Opera Orchestra - Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor - Igor Stravinsky, Composer - André Gide, Writer
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
Album review
Composed by Stravinsky in 1933 in the wake of the French oratorio fashion whose figureheads are Milhaud (Les Choéphores) and Honegger (Le Roi David, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher), and his own Oedipus Rex, Perséphone sanctifies the French period of the Russian composer, after he left Switzerland and before he settled definitely in the United States.
Ordered by Ida Rubinstein, to whom music history already owed Debussy’s Martyre de Saint-Sébastien and Ravel’s Boléro, this melodrama, profane in its story and hybrid regarding its musical form, glorifies spring -without it being a new “Consecration” in its language) on a text by André Gide, thus prolonging the emotion created by the novel Si le grain ne meurt. The three acts of the work (Perséphone enlevée, Perséphone aux enfers, Perséphone renaissante) are close to human nature and psyche with an empathy reinforced by Stravinsky’s music.
Conceived for a tenor (Eumolpe), a narrator, a mixed chorus, a chidren’s chorus and an orchestra, this work, so original in the production of its author, has however never found its audience. People long blamed Stravinsky for wringing the neck of the prosody of Gide’s text without understanding that it was however one of its more sensitive works, possessed with a melodic verve, a clear lyricism and a warmth for which he wasn’t known for.
Under Esa-Pekka Salonen’s inspired and aerial baton, Perséphone finds here a second youth which might finally allow it to impose itself to a new generation of music lovers. This “strange profane mass” (as described by Marcel Marnat) is probably one of the most touching works of a composer that is always looking for new springs. © François Hudry/Qobuz
Details of original recording : Recorded live at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet, Helsinki by the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle on 11 August 2017 at a concert produced by the Helsinki Festival
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 13 track(s)
- Total length: 00:50:03
- 1 Digital booklet
- Main artists: Andrew Staples Finnish National Opera Children's Chorus Finnish National Opera Orchestra Pauline Cheviller Esa-Pekka Salonen Finnish National Opera Chorus
- Composer: Igor Stravinsky
- Label: PentaTone
- Area: Russie
- Genre: Classical Symphonic Music Theatre Music
- Period: Modern Style
(C) 2018 PENTATONE (P) 2018 PENTATONE
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