Search - Stravinsky, Salonen, Philharmonic Orchestra :: Stravinsky: Firebird; Jeu de Cartes

After a listless Firebird, Jeu de Cartes fares much better

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Salonen was 31 when he made this complete Firebird (original 1910 version) in London. Sony had a wWunderkind on their hands, but unlike our current candidate, Gustavo Dudamel, Salonen isn't a showman. One wonders at times if he even cares that an audience is present, so cool and detached is his approach -- you definitely have to come to him, not the other way around. No surprise, then, that he turns his back on the lush, exotic, oriental side of Stravinsky's first great ballet.



I think the Firebird works best if conducted as a love child of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Putting every detail under the microscope, as Salonen does here, reveals no hidden depths. This is voluptuous sensuality at play, not Parsifal, so Salonen's catuiously slow tempos proved irritating. On the ohter hand, he certainly knows how to turn Stravinsky into Debussy, so if that is to your taste, here you go. Sony's sound is open and clear, if a fraction lacking in brightness, and the Philharmonia plays with clean precision. For myself, I'll stick with Boulez from Chicago (DG), the early Bernstein from New York (Sony), and the composer himself (also on Sony).



I expected Salonen to hit his stride in 'Jeu de Cartes,' one of Stravinsky's less played neoclassical ballets. With the witty angularity of Balanchine's choreography, this is one card game that needs to be seen as well as heard, and it's up to the condcutor to make us feel we are seeing it. Happily, Salonen's cool, detailed approach works better here, although we've had more lively, engaging accounts from Claduio Abbado (DG) and the composer himself -- both of their readings make you sit up and take notice. That said, Salonen's recording displays energy and altertness, so it's very much worth hearing."