# Other Stravinsky recordings?



## Setpoint (Jul 4, 2012)

I have the Sony Stravinsky Edition of CDs, which supposedly is a complete compendium of his compositions. 

However, I wonder if there are a few stray works of his that somehow were not included in the Sony collection, and were recorded elsewhere on CD. 

Would anyone have any information on such recordings? Many thanks for any information on this subject.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

To my knowledge the excellent Stravinsky Sony Edition is pretty much complete, except as regards the few instances where there are different versions of a work. An amazon review mentions that a "Fanfare for 2 Trumpets" and Stravinsky´s arrangement of "The Star Sprangled Banner" are missing, though.

Were you thinking of anything in particular ?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

There are some glaring and rather, imo, 'unethical' 'substitutions.' It seems the Petrushka is the 1912 version, not the revised 1945 (or thereabouts) version. The original LP issues used the revised version, which I prefer. (Stravinsky revisions, if not just a few bar-lines to re-secure copyright, are invariably Better...) Using the older version avoids copyright -- so there is some remarkable cheap-chipping where Columbia could manage it. That on an archive of one of the most important composers - go figure.

The official Columbia release of Les Noces is a ghastly 'all star' affair, with four composer-pianists and.. get this atrocity... _sung in English, for the love of Apollo!_ There is another recording, done under the composer's supervision, with Robert Craft on the podium and the Greg Smith Singers. Sadly out of print, it is still one of the best and clearest as to 'how that masterpiece goes.' I do not consider the 'all star' recording of any interest, historic or musical.

Many of the later (post Stravinsky's decease) Robert Kraft recordings are at such extremely upward adjusted tempi that you get the feeling he just wanted to get it all over with.


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## Setpoint (Jul 4, 2012)

*Joen--*
I wasn't thinking of anything in particular; I am reading "The New Grove Stravinsky" and the thought occurred to me that among the myriad works mentioned, perhaps some weren't included in the Sony collection. (But I don't feel motivated to check every piece mentioned in the book against the Sony list.) I just thought that some pieces might have sneaked through the cracks between, so to speak. Perhaps "The Star Spangled Banner" was not included because of this, from <wiki.answers.com>:

"In an interview with his biographer Robert Craft, Stravinsky recounts that his arrangement of the National Anthem was written in Los Angeles in July 1941 and first performed shortly after that. The incident with the Boston Symphony occurred in 1944. After performing his arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner with the orchestra, he was approached prior to the second scheduled concert by the Boston Commissioner of Police who warned him that he must remove the work from his concert or the parts would be seized by the police. There was a Massachusetts law prohibiting any rearrangement of the anthem apparently. Stravinsky did as he was requested and that was the end of the story.

"There is a mug shot type photo of Stravinsky from Boston dated 1940 that is often shown as evidence of his arrest. However, clearly Stravinsky had not written or performed the Star Spangled Banner arrangement in 1940 and the photo has since been identified by as being from a passport application. There was never any arrest."

*PetrB--*
I found your comments interesting. For example, I have always preferred Leonard Bernstein's recording of "The Symphony of Psalms" to the one in the Sony collection, though I don't know which version is more faithful to the intention of the score. Perhaps Bernstein just camped it up in his own narcissistic way--but I think his is the more powerful and intense interpretation. There are a few other non-Sony versions of Stravinsky pieces that I also prefer--though I cannot recall the names offhand. Those (1) feel more "serious" or intense than the corresponding and more blase Sony versions, or (2) those recordings were miked better, focusing on the most important instruments carrying the music's main theme, rather than let them get lost in the background.

The subject of Robert Craft and Stravinsky is always interesting; I didn't know that Craft juiced the tempo. There was trouble over some recordings supposedly conducted by Stravinsky that were actually done by Craft; in those cases, I think the attribution was later corrected.

I have always found Stravinsky's music stunning and profound. I has a primal force that feels analogous to a direct perception of the preverbal chaos of the universe. It thus engenders an experience of wonder and the mystical.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

The Sony collection is just one performance of each work. Stravinsky recorded as conductor as early as 1929 and did several versions of the major works.


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