Search - Stravinsky, Milhaud, Stokowski :: Story of a Soldier

For all his flamboyance and showmanship, Leopold Stokowski was a serious visionary in many respects, not least for his advocacy of new music and new recording technologies. This disc is a case in point. Stokowski's 1967 performance of Stravinsky's evergreen ballet/fable was the first American recording made with the Dolby noise reduction system. It was issued on two LPs: one with English narration, the other in French. Vanguard's remastering of the English version sounds crisper than ever. The 85-year-old conductor's crackerjack ensemble (all premiere New York freelancers) navigates Stravinsky's tart, pared-down textures with vibrancy and panache. Madeline Milhaud makes a saucy narrator, ably partnered by Jean Pierre Aumont's Soldier and Met veteran Martial Singher's insidious Devil. --Dan Davis