Hello, I am looking for recommendations on a good SACD recording of Stravinsky Rite of Spring. I have been wanting to listen to this piece of music after watching Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky on blu-ray. When searching Amazon for SACDs all I find are recordings with poor reviews. I am not sure which one to buy. Thanks

-Dougie

Doug, I'm definitely an enthusiast for several of the Stravinsky works, particularly The Rite of Spring, Petrouchka and The Firebird, and own multiple recordings of each. My first suggestion would be not to limit yourself to SACD, but to pick excellent performances in excellent sound, regardless of the format. A superb bargain for Rite and Petrouchka is the Ozawa which I've recommended here before. A recent discovery of something of a "sleeper" in Rite and Firebird is the Simonov . Both of these leave nothing to be desired in either performance or sound, especially when played in surround using DPLII mode, and are available from sellers on Amazon at practically give-away prices.

I've borrowed two SACD Rites, the Jarvi and the Salonen, and would recommend the Salonen if it absolutely had to be SACD(bass drum, if anything, too prominent), but I bought neither, since I preferred the Ozawa and Simonov recordings.

Thank you John for the suggestions and Hyper linking the music to Amazon, makes it easy to buy...lol At these prices I might buy all three, at least I will get the two cheaper CDs and try the SACD at a later time.

Stravinsky's music holds a special place in my heart. My first memory of any serious adult music is The Firebird Suite. I must have been 4 or 5 but I have vivid memories of listening to the finale and how it made me feel. To this day the Firebird is my all time favorite music but I have never listened to the composer's other music. Watching the opening minutes of the movie made me realize I should be listening to more. BTW my favorite Firebird is the Robert Shaw & Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.

Hi to both of you: There are several "classic" recordings of the Rite...not all so sonically spectacular as those in SACD. My recommendation would be Bernstein with the N.Y. Philharmonic on Sony. It is absolutely unique with sounds not heard in any other recording and with a dynamism not found either. You can find used copies around on the so called "Royal Edition" coupled with Petrushka. By the way Simonov's very fine recording has a SACD issue (it's hard to find but I'd wait for it to appear on Amazon or eBay if I were in the market; I also own this recording in DDD format). You may also consider Robert Craft's rendition with the Philharmonia...he was a long time collaborator with Stravinsky and not only are his recordings authoritative...but very exciting in exemplary sound. I read excellent reviews about Ozawa's Chicago recording and Salonen's LAPO SACD recording as well..but I haven't heard them.

Lee, I was aware of the existance(just barely)of the Simonov on SACD, and saw that it was offered here (somewhat concealed, since Simonov wasn't mentioned, and even a reviewer as sharp as Mr. VanDeSande didn't make the connection, as his comment shows). I didn't mention it both because of the $80.47 price(precise valuation indeed!)and my thought that it wasn't likely to be appreciably better than the latest mastering of the CD.

I was leery about DSD before, and then I found this article, which confirmed my suspicions.

http://sound.westhost.com/cd-sacd-dvda.htm

As always: Look for other sources, and form your own conclusions.

I'm bringing this topic back from a shirt hibernation....lol

I've been listening to and anything my new Stravinsky CDs very much. It's a little hard to overcome the strange rhythms and pronounced dissonance (and sometimes lack of melody) in Rite of Spring, but at the same time I'm overwhelmed with bliss every time I listen. The Axioms help with the blissfulness of course....:)

But the point I wanted to make; is that to me, it is very event that many of the modern film composers I enjoy must have been inspired by Stravinsky. Listening to Rite and especially Petrushla, sometimes I think I'm listening to John Williams and a scene from Star Wars. I just watched the new M. Night Shyamalan film Devil on BluRay and I was thinking the opening music by Fernando Velazquez sounded a lot like Rite....There most have been inspiration too. Anyhow, that's all I have for now....

-Dougie

Doug, glad to hear that you're enjoying the Stravinsky CDs. Do you have any significant preferences between them?

As to the influence that Stravinsky and other classical composers of the past have had on film scores, yes, very definitely so. When I comment that my listening is almost entirely classical, I certainly include film scores by composers such as Herrmann, Rozsa, Williams, Waxman, Steiner, etc. These men composed beautiful and/or exciting music to make films whole and which are often good enough to stand alone as enjoyable listening. In contrast, many other "modern" classical composers have attempted to foist sterile academic exercises in sound upon us which have neither beauty nor excitement and which I view as nothing but aural garbage.