COMPOSERS: Bartok,Musorgsky,Stravinsky
LABELS: DG
ALBUM TITLE: Stravinksy, Bartók, Musorgsky
WORKS: The Rite of Spring
PERFORMER: Los Angeles PO/Esa-Pekka Salonen
CATALOGUE NO: 477 6198
Three years ago the Los Angeles
Philharmonic moved into Walt
Disney Concert Hall, a stunning
new auditorium endowed by the
great cartoonist’s widow Lillian. Two
years later one of the items on the
programme that evening, Stravinsky’s
Rite of Spring, was revisited for
this inaugural Walt Disney Hall
recording. The results are undeniably
potent. I’m not sure, for instance,
that I’ve ever heard so much of the
Rite’s instrumental detail revealed
so intricately: the interweaving
woodwind of the introduction are
exquisitely, indeed eerily sifted, and
even in the biggest climaxes there is
unusual clarity of texture. Partly this
is due to Esa-Pekka Salonen’s highly
perceptive conducting, partly it’s
the fine recording, blending timbral accuracy with neat positional focus in
the stereo version. The multi-channel
SACD sound warms the marginally
dry acoustic, and has the typical
effect of enlarging the soundstage,
though rear speakers are in this
respect used a touch conservatively.
Bass response is mighty – try ‘Rondes
printanières’ for some impressive
floorboard shaking.
The couplings are also attractive
– swirling, intermittently thunderous
renditions of Musorgsky’s original
version of Night on the Bare Mountain
and the concert suite from Bartók’s
Miraculous Mandarin ballet, the
latter perhaps a smidgeon wanting
in sleaze and malice. Reservations?
As captured here the hall acoustic
is a little short on front-to-back
perspective, and the Rite occasionally
lacks a shot of raw ferocity. Chailly’s
immensely powerful Cleveland
performance (part of an attractive
Double Decca package) provides
that in spades, and on SACD I prefer
Paavo Järvi’s superbly engineered
Telarc version. But Salonen’s is
a compelling Rite, and one to be
seriously reckoned with. Terry Blain