Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex / Les Noces
Composer: Stravinsky
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Orchestra: Mariinsky Orchestra
Format: SACD
Price: £10.99
Release Date: 24 May 2010
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Less than four years separate the premieres of Les Noces and Oedipus Rex, yet they each represent high-points in two distinct phases of Stravinsky’s career. Although the concept of Les Noces is highly innovative – a ‘dance cantata’ – the music remains rooted in Russian folk traditions. Stravinsky dedicated the ballet to Diaghilev, whose Ballet Russes gave the premiere, and it marks the crowning glory of Stravinsky’s so-called ‘second Russian period’. The opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex is the first great work of Stravinsky’s neo-classical period. It features a major change in his compositional style, influenced in part by the loss of ‘Russian identity’ following his emigration. It is sung in Latin with Jean Cocteau’s original French narration spoken here by Gérard Depardieu.
Reviews
13 July 2010
***** ‘À ces fins entendements, Gergiev ajoute une vie organique, presque un suspense ... Il [Gergiev] prend le néoclassicisme à bras-le-corps et en propose un intelligent portrait : dans un discours qui avance implacablement, l’exposition, pleinement assumée, d’un langage mort se conjugue à un dense matériau, riche de dynamiques et de plans sonores’
28 May 2010
'Gergiev has made it central to his repertoire, and this performance, has idiomatic vocal forces, essential for this fundamentally Russian work ... the Mariinsky Chorus and players relish the primitivist rhythmic verve of this singular masterpiece'
28 May 2010
‘you can actually tell that the language in question in Russian, which is no mean achievement. Marry that with crisp playing from the pianos and percussion, and sensible tempos that offer plenty of excitement but also promote clarityof diction, and the result is tremendous, and very effectively recorded.’
Artists
Les Noces
Valery Gergiev, conductor
Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus
Andrei Petrenko, Principal Chorus Master
Natalia Domskaya, Principal Vocal Coach
Mlada Khudoley, soprano
Olga Savova, mezzo-soprano
Alexander Timchenko, tenor
Andrei Serov, bass
Alexander Mogilevsky, piano
Svetlana Smolina, piano
Yulia Zaichkina, piano
Maxim Mogilevsky, piano
Oedipus Rex
Valery Gergiev, conductor
Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus
Andrei Petrenko, Principal Chorus Master
Natalia Domskaya, Principal Vocal Coach
Natalia Mordashova, Vocal Coach
Gérard Depardieu, Narrator
Sergei Semishku Oedipus, tenor
Ekaterina Sememchuk Jocasta, mezzo-soprano
Evgeny Nikitin Creon, bass-baritone
Mikhail Petrenko Tiresias, bass
Evgeny Nikitin Messenger, bass-baritone
Alexander Timchenko Sheperd, tenor
Recording Details
Les Noces
Recorded at the Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, 28-31 December 2009
Producer: James Mallinson
Engineers: Jonathan Stokes & Neil Hutchinson for Classic Sound Ltd
Notes in Russian (Cyrillic), English and French.
Libretto in Russian (Cyrillic) and English.
Oedipus Rex
Recorded at the Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, 28-31 December 2009 and 4-8 February 2010
Producer: James Mallinson
Engineers: Jonathan Stokes & Neil Hutchinson for Classic Sound Ltd
Notes in Russian (Cyrillic), English and French.
Libretto in Russian (Cyrillic) Latin, English and French.
Hybrid SACD. Compatible with all CD players Includes multi-channel 5.0 and stereo mixes
