Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps (Mariss Janson) (CD, Br-Klassik)

IGOR STRAWINSKY LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS (THE SPRING SERIES) / L OISEAU DE FEU (THE FIREBIRD) Igor Stravinsky composed the before the First World War especially for the famous ballet ensemble Les Ballets Russes, one of the most important dance companies of the 20th century, and its impresario Sergei Djagilew first three of his great ballet music for large orchestra and thus the most important of his ballets: 1910 L oiseau de feu (The Firebird), 1911 Petrushka and 1913 Le sacre du printemps (The consecration of spring). The first, which is regarded as a pioneering work at the beginning of the 20th century, and the third, which is understood as a key work of the music of that century due to its extraordinary rhythmic and tonal structures, are included in live recordings on the new CD from BR Klassik the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of its former chief conductor Mariss Jansons, who died in 2019, in a masterly interpretation. Djagilew, a formative figure for the art of ballet in the 20th century, founded the troupe in 1909 in Paris, where it first appeared; In 1911 it took its seat in Monte Carlo. The premiere of Stravinsky’s Firebird took place on June 25, 1910 in the Paris Opera House; that of Le sacre du printemps on May 29, 1913 in the newly built Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a day that went down in history as one of the great artistic scandals of the 20th century because of the protests of the Parisian public and the bad reviews of the critics who finally made Stravinsky famous. In the meantime, his really pioneering music has established itself internationally and is an integral part of the concert programs, even if the music of the spring consecration can still be heard, which is why it so overly aroused and disturbed contemporaries a hundred years ago. (Le sacre du printemps can be heard in the revised version from 1945 and Der Feuervogel in the version developed by Stravinsky in 1945 as a large ballet suite.) Two essential ballet pieces by Stravinsky’s classic music from the beginning of the 20th century are combined on this new CD; These are live recordings of concerts that took place on January 16, 2009 in the Philharmonie im Gasteig (Le sacre du printemps) and on November 14, 2016 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residence (L oiseau de feu) with the excellent recording quality of the Bavarian radio were recorded.