CD Details
All Artists: James Conlon, Natalie Dessay, Marie McLaughlin, Violeta Urmana, Vsevolod Grivnov, Albert Schagidullin, Laurent Naouri, Maxim Mikhailov, Olivier Berg, Wassyl Slipak, Grzegorz Staskiewicz, Claire Servian, Olga Oussova, Ian Caley, Orchestre & choeurs de l'Opéra National de Paris
Title: Stravinsky - Le Rossignol ~ Renard / Dessay, McLaughlin, Urmana, Naouri, Caley, Mikhailov, Conlon
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: EMI Classics France
Release Date: 11/16/1999
Album Type: Limited Edition, Original recording reissued, Import
Genre: Classical
Styles: Opera & Classical Vocal, Historical Periods, Modern, 20th, & 21st Century
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 724355687425 |
Synopsis
Amazon.comAt the dawn of the new century, as the heated musical debates of the last fade into irrelevance, Igor Stravinsky remains a towering presence--in perspective, his legacy appearing less a mere totem of musical modernism than a potent force of creative self-renewal. Indeed, there's been a recent bumper crop of significant Stravinsky interpretations, from Gergiev's glorious Firebird to the revealing triptych recorded by Tilson Thomas--who in the summer of 1999 also led the San Francisco Symphony in a heralded festival reappraising the composer--as well as Sony's reissue of Stravinsky's own Columbia recordings. Add to the mix this thoroughly delightful account of a pair of undeservedly lesser-known treasures. Based on a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, Le Rossignol is usually encountered in its guise as an orchestral suite, but the original opera (1908-1914), presented here, is a work not to be missed. James Conlon simply allows the music to speak for itself and sympathetically enters into its stylistic collage, accenting the essential Stravinskian antitheses: nature and artifice, archaism and future shock. Because of a sort of telescopic brevity, you can hear the stylistic quantum leaps made by the composer, from the opera's lushly orchestrated, Rimsky-Korsakovesque opening scene to the bitonality and sonic experimentalism of the rest. Soprano Natalie Dessay marries acrobatic agility with the necessary air of longing and exotic beauty in the pivotal role. In the burlesque theater piece Renard--Stravinsky's over-the-top riff on Russian folktales of cunning animals--Conlon is attuned to the angular, acid-tinged sonorities (featuring such wonderful instrumentation as the cimbalom) as well as the hilarious antics. In both works, the sense of theatrical narrative emerges to give a completely enchanting experience. --Thomas May
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CD Reviews
Solovyei - A Russian Nightingale 08/15/2002 (4 out of 5 stars) "This 'Rossignol' is not to be confused with the orchestral suite 'le chant du rossignol' ('song of the nightingale'), a symphonic poem which the composer drew from the opera later. The story here is based on a fairy tale 'The Emporer's Nightingale' by Hans Christian Andersen, and given a russian folk slant in a libretto by Stravinsky and Stefan Mitusov.Given the title "le Rossignol" some record buyers will be slightly taken aback when the Fisherman (sung by Vsevolod Grivnov here) starts singing in Russian. There is an early version sung in French, by Cluytens (Testament 1955 mono), but the premiere in Paris in 1914 was sung in Russian, so were the Stravinsky and Boulez versions (1961 Sony, 1991 Erato) and so is this 1999 production from the Opera National de Paris. Hence the traditional french name 'Rossignol' only comes from the location of the premier, the real name of the opera being 'Solovyei' ('nightingale' in Russian).Paris opera darlings Natalie Dessay and her husband Laurent Naouri are inevitably the stars of the show as the nightingale and the chamberlain respectively, but there is also an impeccable Russian contingent: Grivnov (as above), Violeta Urmana as death, Shagidullin as the emporer, Mikhailov as the bonze.The second item on this CD is the 15 minute burlesque 'Renard' for two tenors and two basses. This is also based on a fairy tale, this time by Afanassyev, and known to Russians under the title 'Baika'. The four singers do not take roles of the animals but stand among the peasant band while the actions are mimed by clowns. Some reviews have carped that this performance of Renard is not 'earthy' enough, that the singers sing too beautifully, but really there is enough burlesque in the score without the singers hamming it up too. Incredibly neither the Erato or EMI recordings include the Russian text (despite what the increasingly careless Gramophone Good CD Guide says to the contrary), which means that anyone wanting to follow word-for-word will have to track down a copy of Vol.8 of the now deleted Sony Stravinsky Edition. Even having done this this will not help with 'Renard' because the Sony Edition offers this sung in English." Dont miss this 05/07/2002 (5 out of 5 stars) "This is one of my Stravinsky favourites because of splendid Stravinsky music (somewhere between his early modernist period and his early Rimsky-Korsakov style topped with a little... just a little neo classicism). It is not "Rite of spring" style but very Stravinsky anyway and conducting and singing is marvelous.This must be one of the most underrated operas ever. Dessay is in top form (she is alone worth price of this disc), and if you like operas made after 1910 this is a must have... a very good opera record."
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Track Listings (21) - Disc #1