Stravinsky: 125th anniversary celebrated on disc
(July 2007)
A number of important Stravinsky releases have marked the composer’s 125th anniversary year, led by Sony Classical’s celebratory 22-CD box set (SX22K 46290). This first appeared as Stravinsky – The Recorded Legacy, drawing together the composer’s historic Columbia recordings of his own works, but is now re-released at an unmissable super-budget price. The New York Times rightly summed up Stravinsky’s discography as “the greatest landmark in the history of recorded music from the classical tradition.”
Naxos has released a 125th anniversary album of Robert Craft’s Stravinsky recordings including The Rite of Spring and Symphonies of Wind Instruments (8.557508). As the Times noted “this CD has a direct line to the composer himself… The fizzing electricity in the Philharmonia’s response to Craft makes this still one of the most exciting performances on disc.” Tony Palmer’s acclaimed Stravinsky film Once at a Border (Digital Classics 10015) has been reissued on DVD, once again drawing plaudits: “As an introduction to Stravinsky it would be hard to beat… Palmer lets Stravinsky speak for himself: through his own words, and through his music… a magnificent tapestry offering a narrative of its own… Strongly recommended.” (BBC Music Magazine)
View and buy new Stravinsky recordings
In 2008 Stravinsky and his music will hit the big screens in the movie Coco and Igor, exploring the composer’s relationship with fashion icon Coco Chanel. The film’s director, William Friedkin, most famous for The Exorcist and French Connection, has also had a lifelong engagement with classical music and in the past decade has developed a parallel career as an opera director including productions of Wozzeck in Florence, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle in Los Angeles and Salome in Munich. Coco and Igor is based on the novel by Chris Greenhalgh and stars Marina Hands and Mads Mikkelsen, with filming planned for early 2008 and release later in the year.
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