Eight Miniatures at last -- sort of.
Gerardji | 09/05/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Great. I finallly find a version of Stravinsky's Eight Instrumental Miniatures (buried on a CD with a funny title) and it's not presently available on Amazon.com. I can wait. The first version you hear of any piece of music is often the one you like the most. I was fortunate to hear Stravinsky's Firebird and Debussy's Nocturne conducted by Pierre Monteaux the first time. Bach's Mass in B Mnior conducted by Karl Richter, same deal. Nothing else comes close. The first time I heard Stravinsky's Eight Instrumental Miniatures was on an LP conducted by Zubin Metha tagged on the end of The Rite of Spring. This version can't bring back the memories of the original I heard 30 years ago (stirring something warm deep inside), but it's good. And if you have never heard it before, it won't matter. Listen to the clips here a few times and you'll learn to love it the way I do. They are almost complete, in fact, since each of the eight pieces is very short. ( I can't comment on the versions of the Milhaud and McCauley pieces. ) The sound quality on the net, of course, in no way measures up to CD quality, so wait. I can."