# Stravinsky's Rite of Spring



## bassClef

This is my favourite piece of work, no doubt, it never fails to bring me out in goose-bumps, and even tears!!. But which recording is supposed to be the best? I'm investing in a high-end hi-fi system so I want to hear this work at it's dynamic best (save for a live performance, which I've yet to experience). I might even go for an SACD system if this offers sonic benefits. Is Esa-Pekka Salonen's new SACD recording any good ?


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## LouDem

*Salonen's Sacre*

Just got the new Salonen version of "Le Sacre du Printemps". And it's worth the money just to listen to this new piece. On top of it there's Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" and Bartok's "Miraculous Mandarin" (I think my favorite piece on this disk ).

This is my third "Sacre" ( Ansermet and Mehta were my very first versions from way way back ). I do think that Salonen's is somewhat "younger" and "fresher" in some respect. He just add that touch of "edginess" to this already edgy piece. Get it and enjoy. You can't go wrong.


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## bassClef

Thanks, I've listened to many recordings of this piece and I'm always left slightly disappointed with the dynamics. My favourite version is on an old Deutsche-Gramaphonen cassette tape, I can't remember the conductor, but that's the version I fell in love with because it was so dynamic! Sadly it's lost now, and I'm sure even if I had it the tape would be too old. I just want to recapture that excitement! I'll give the Salonen recording a whirl, and may even try to get a SACD player to give it the best chance


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## fartwriggler

WHt do people think of these two interpretations? (Rattle's does it for me)


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## jdavid

My favorite: Antal Dorati and Minneapolis - Dorati is my favorite conductor along with Haitink. I have Dorati's complete recording of the Haydn Syms with the Philharmonia Hungarica and they are priceless - I mention this because whatever he turned his attentions to became collectible recordings overnight - his Bartok is deeply felt and fierce and The Rite is molten and red-blooded. Still, just my opinion. No flames, please. I just don't have the energy 



bassClef said:


> This is my favourite piece of work, no doubt, it never fails to bring me out in goose-bumps, and even tears!!. But which recording is supposed to be the best? I'm investing in a high-end hi-fi system so I want to hear this work at it's dynamic best (save for a live performance, which I've yet to experience). I might even go for an SACD system if this offers sonic benefits. Is Esa-Pekka Salonen's new SACD recording any good ?


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## jdavid

In my previous reply I started to mention Rattle, and then thought only to give one preference. Both Rattle w Birmingham (I assume) and Boulez w Cleveland are very fine.



fartwriggler said:


> WHt do people think of these two interpretations? (Rattle's does it for me)


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## itywltmt

Must point out his still pretty active thread:
http://www.talkclassical.com/4337-best-recording-le-sacre.html?highlight=sacre+du

I believe that the best "analog" version of the Rite of Spring is that by Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra. That is, the best of the "1965 version". I also own Dutoi/MSO for the so-called "original" version (dated 1921, I believe). I have heard many good ones over the years, but (if that means anything) these are the ones in my collection. Honourable mention to Tilson-Thomas/BSO (DG) and Muti/Philadelphia (EMI), both recordings of the 1965 version.


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## Tapkaara

Redundant threads, thy name is Talk Classical.

By the way, can anyone recommend some dark, epic, depressing music?


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## StlukesguildOhio

Redundant threads, thy name is Talk Classical.

By the way, can anyone recommend some dark, epic, depressing music?

have you looked into Sibelius?

:devil:


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## bassClef

Redundant thread this may be, but I started it over 2 years before the better alternative, so don't blame me! Blame the person who resurrected it after being forgotten for 5 years.


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## mleghorn

Tapkaara said:


> Redundant threads, thy name is Talk Classical.
> 
> By the way, can anyone recommend some dark, epic, depressing music?


Mahler's 6th and 9th. Schnittke's 5th Symphony, Shostakovich's 4th, 10th, 11th, 13th, and 14th.


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## itywltmt

On my blog this week, a version of the Rite of Spring for Wind Band:
http://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/419-usaf-heritage-america-band.html


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## Moscow-Mahler

II hope that Andris Nelsons will record Rite of Spring with the CBSO. It's a great orchestra - and I think he is the right man to do it with them.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

This is the only recording I have of it.


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## joen_cph

Funny how even classical covers often mirror their times (1974) - lots of psychedelic traits (Sergent Pepper, Monty Python etc.), added a hint of Henri Rousseau´s naivism - and perhaps Mount Rushmore ...


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## pianozach

Sacrificial Clap-Along


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## 89Koechel

Geez, I wonder if bassClef is still looking for the "dynamic best" of this most-seminal work. I'm sure he's not looking for Monteux/1929, in the greatest source, for a stereo system. Well, if it's dynamism, of the inspired sort, he COULD find it, there ... albeit in the virtually-primitive sonics (including old shellac sides) of the time, when put-together (Pristine Classical, and even it's improvements). Too bad that George Szell didn't record it, with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw ... as he and the Amsterdam fellows did so-great, in Dvorak's 8th Symphony, Mozart's 34th, etc.


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## Heck148

89Koechel said:


> .....Too bad that George Szell didn't record it, with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw ... as he and the Amsterdam fellows did so-great, in Dvorak's 8th Symphony, Mozart's 34th, etc.


The biggest loss is that Reiner didn't record it with Chicago....he was going to, it was in the works, for concert performance and recording..but he became ill and the project was suspended...unfortunately, it never got back on the front burner...that had potential to be cosmic...


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