Stravinsky: Pulcinella ; Symphony in three movements / 4 Etudes

Review Anyone fortunate enough to have heard conductor Pierre Boulez lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through Bela Bartok's "Bluebeard's Castle" last month in Ann Arbor can attest to the exceptional quality of this marriage of conductor and orchestra. A long string of vibrant recordings attests to the same charisma, and a terrific new all-Stravinsky disc (FOUR STARS out of four stars, CSO-Resound), headlined by the neoclassic "Pulcinella" and the craggy Symphony in Three Movements, offers fresh evidence. What is so magical about the chemistry between Boulez, who turns 85 next month, and the Chicagoans is the way their strengths compliment each other by repairing their Achilles' heels. A modernist icon, Boulez has a legendary gift for rendering a score with striking transparency, balance, precision and intellectual pop -- qualities that focus and discipline the CSO's famously muscular sound, reining in what can easily become too much of a good thing. On the other hand, the orchestra's brawny expression pulls Boulez out of his shell, promoting his most expressive work. That's why I've always preferred Boulez's partnership with Chicago to his work with the Cleveland Orchestra, whose natural fastidiousness can turn overly dry and fussy under him. Taped in early 2009, the Stravinsky disc bursts with coiled energy and vibrant color. For a quick snapshot of the Boulez effect, listen to the high-wire intensity of the first movement of the symphony, where in both full ensemble outbursts and lighter syncopated passages for strings, winds and piano, the clarified tonal blend allows you to hear each instrument and the gestalt. As the movement continues, a churning undertow, impeccably enunciated, seems to stalk the tart melodic lines above. The impact is electric. In a revealing interview in the CD booklet, Boulez calls "Pulcinella" a game, and there is a winsome, playful quality to the performance that belies the conductor's reputation as an ideologue. What, revolutionaries can't have fun, too? The reading of the complete score includes the rarely heard songs, sung stylishly by Roxana Constantinescu, Nicholas Phan and Kyle Ketelsen. The orchestra plays like aces. Boulez is smitten with the early Four Etudes, especially the eerie and eccentric orchestrations of these sui generis miniatures. (They are expansions of Stravinsky's Three Pieces for String Quartet and a stray piano work.) In the interview, Boulez makes clear his long-held disappointment that Stravinsky never followed through on the forward-looking implications of these works. They still sound like almost nothing else -- dark, biting, satiric, strange and ever-modern. -- Detroit Free Press, Mark Stryker, February 14, 2010 Crisp and muscular, Stravinsky's neo-classic commission for the New York Philharmonic was his first major work after settling in the United States. Inspired by wartime experiences, but also including themes from an incomplete piano concerto and an aborted film score, its textures are rich and inviting, and Boulez knows its measure. -- Classical Minnesota Public Radio, Michael Barone, March 4, 2010 Grade: A- On the verge of his 85th birthday, Pierre Boulez continues to apply a special touch to works both old and new. This Stravinsky disc with the Chicago Symphony finds Boulez in slightly mellower form than in decades past in terms of rhythm and tempo. But the performances are typically organic, transparent and sonorous, with stupendous playing by the Chicago musicians, especially in a complete version of "Pulcinella." -- Cleveland.com, Donald Rosenberg, February 14, 2010 It may seem peculiar to some listeners to find Pierre Boulez at the helm for this CSO Resound recording of Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, the Four Études, and Pulcinella, because it was the polystylism that these works represent which the conductor once vociferously railed against. But that was Boulez in his younger days, when he was still a fiery polemicist and a purist of the avant-garde, with an axe to grind against any who would not yield to the serial juggernaut, including the chameleon-like Stravinsky, who employed stylistic diversity as a major aspect of his art and resisted twelve-tone experimentation until his later years. Decades later, it seems Boulez has mellowed, for it is a fairly sympathetic interpreter who leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in these works, and it appears that the neo-Classicism of the symphony, the Rococo pastiches of Pulcinella, and the pseudo-primitivism of the Four Études no longer seem to cause him any aesthetic discomfort. It is even possible that Boulez has found this music more appealing over time, if only for the reason that both he and Stravinsky have famously shared a resistance to emotion and favored a clinical musical sensibility. No one would consider these pieces deep expressions, and while the performances here are muscular, sharp, crisp, and clean, they are utterly devoid of sentimentality. Even Pulcine
ASIN: B002YOJC4K
VSKU: DBV.B002YOJC4K.A
Condition: Acceptable
Author/Artist:Pierre Boulez|Chicago Symphony Orchestra|John Ringer|Kyle Ketelsen|Nicholas Phan|Roxana Constantinescu
Binding: Audio cd
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Condition Notes: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case will show wear, and may be in library packaging. Ships fast!