Igor Stravinsky - Rite Of Spring/The Nightingale (Naxos Audio CD)

"One of the confounding things about classical music is choosing from dozens (sometimes hundreds) of recordings of the same piece. I haven't heard every CD of Igor Stravinsky's jolting symphonic masterpiece, The Rite of Spring (1911–13), but I've sorted through enough of them to recommend Robert Craft's Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring/The Nightingale (Naxos) as an almost unsurpassable choice. . . . The Naxos disc has superb sonics, surpassing Craft's admirable 1991 recording on MusicMasters for clarity, depth, and overall punch. Rowdy sections such as "Ritual of the Rival Tribes," "Dance of the Earth," and the apocalyptic "Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One)" boom with big, broad-shouldered bass drum licks and pounding timpani." -- Christopher DeLaurenti, The Stranger (Seattle, WA), October 27, 2005

In 1968, Stravinsky wrote of the première of The Rite of Spring: "May whoever listens to this music never experience the insult to which it was subjected and of which I was the witness in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, Spring 1913".

Written for a huge orchestra to a setting of scenes from pagan Russia, this elemental ballet with its vaulting, violent energy and assymetrical rhythms almost from beginning to end, has become a major landmark of 20th century music. Stravinsky’s orchestral palette, different and distinctive in every work, is never more exotically colourful than in his one act opera The Nightingale, which is a virtual catalogue of avian imitations.

Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)

London Symphony Orchestra
Craft, Robert, Conductor


Part I (Adoration of the Earth): Introduction 00:03:19
Part I (Adoration of the Earth): The Augurs of Spring / Dances of the Young Girls 00:03:14
Part I (Adoration of the Earth): Ritual of Abduction 00:01:19
Part I (Adoration of the Earth): Spring Rounds 00:03:09
Part I (Adoration of the Earth): Ritual of the Rival Tribes 00:03:10
Part I (Adoration of the Earth): Dance of the Earth 00:01:18
Part II (The Sacrifice): Introduction 00:03:31
Part II (The Sacrifice): Mystic Circles of the Young Girls 00:03:08
Part II (The Sacrifice): Glorification of the Chosen One 00:01:37
Part II (The Sacrifice): Evocation of the Ancestors 00:00:41
Part II (The Sacrifice): Ritual Action of the Ancestors 00:02:58
Part II (The Sacrifice): Sacrificial Dance 00:04:34
The Nightingale (Le rossignol)

Trifonova, Olga, soprano
Tear, Robert, tenor
Longworth, Pippa, soprano
Whelan, Paul, bass-baritone
Richardson, Stephen, bass
Greenan, Andrew, baritone
Burgess, Sally, alto
Hall, Peter, tenor
Preece, Simon, bass
London Voices
Philharmonia Orchestra
Craft, Robert, Conductor


Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Introduction 00:03:05
Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Fisherman 00:03:32
Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Nightingale's Aria 00:03:01
Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Chamberlain, Bonze, Cook, Courtiers 00:02:50
Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Second Entrance of the Nightingale 00:00:47
Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Chamberlain and Bonze 00:00:24
Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Nightingale's Second Aria 00:00:44
Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Chamberlain and Bonze 00:00:52
Scene 1 (The Forest at Dawn): Fisherman 00:01:26
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): Prelude 00:01:27
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): Cook 00:00:20
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): Prelude (reprise) 00:00:22
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): Chinese March 00:03:10
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): Chamberlain 00:00:14
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): Song of the Nightingale 00:04:12
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): The Japanese Envoys 00:01:18
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): The Mechanical Nightingale 00:00:59
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): The Emperor, Chamberlain, Courtiers 00:00:59
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): Chinese March (reprise) 00:00:50
Scene 2 (The Porcelain Palace of the Chinese Emperor): Fisherman 00:00:59
Scene 3 (The Emperor's Bedchamber): Prelude 00:02:43
Scene 3 (The Emperor's Bedchamber): Chorus of Ghosts, Emperor 00:01:08
Scene 3 (The Emperor's Bedchamber): Nightingale 00:02:12
Scene 3 (The Emperor's Bedchamber): Death and the Nightingale 00:01:29
Scene 3 (The Emperor's Bedchamber): Nightingale's Aria 00:01:25
Scene 3 (The Emperor's Bedchamber): Emperor and Nightingale 00:01:41
Scene 3 (The Emperor's Bedchamber): Funeral Procession 00:01:14
Scene 3 (The Emperor's Bedchamber): Fisherman 00:01:06



Total Playing Time: 01:16:27