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Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress / Riccardo Chailly


Release Date: 10/02/2008 
Label:  Decca   Catalog #: 411644   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Igor Stravinsky
Performer:  John Dobson,  Astrid Varnay,  Matthew Best,  Stafford Dean,   ... 
Conductor:  Riccardo Chailly
Orchestra/Ensemble:  London Sinfonietta,  London Sinfonietta Chorus
Number of Discs: 2 
Recorded in: Stereo 
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Notes and Editorial Reviews

"The kind of rapport one expects between conductor and performers who have recently worked together in the theatre is especially important when the conductor takes such a forceful view of the work as Chailly evidently does of The Rake, and from the outset the London Sinfonietta match him in both precision and panache. The recording gives full and appropriate prominence to the glorious sound of the Sinfonietta's woodwind section, but all departments of the ensemble are admirable. In its balance of brilliance and sensitivity, this is playing of the first class: indeed, it is so good that there seems a real danger, at least in Act I. that the singers will be driven into subordinate roles. Samuel Ramey's distinctive, attractive timbre does Read more make an immediate and satisfying impression: he is the wily, oily demon to the life, and in the later acts he effects a transformation from sauvity to menace without sacrificing any purely musical qualities en route. Both Sarah Walker and John Dobson have made the roles of Baba and Sellem their own in the theatre, and their scenes are done with a wit which owes much to relishing the felicities of the Auden/Kallman text. (Decca uses sound effects for Baba's china smashing, and elsewhere: only that for the card shuffling in Act 3 seems slightly overdone.)

To say that Cathryn Pope makes a vividly vulnerable Anne is a mixed compliment: after all, Anne must, like her father, display "strength of purpose". Dramatically, the role is underplayed for the gramophone. but the voice itself is appealing, and for once we never feel that a mature, weighty soprano is trying (with less than total success) to scale her voice down to the part's essential lyricism. Youthfulness and lyricism are also the hallmarks of Philip Langridge's performance: there are moments where the voice sounds under pressure, moments where he responds too reticently to situations for the character's fecklessness and impulsiveness to come fully alive. But in the later scenes he gives a touching reality to Tom's disintegration, all the more effective for its restraint."

-- Gramophone [2/1985]
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Works on This Recording

1. Rake's Progress by Igor Stravinsky
Performer:  John Dobson (Tenor), Astrid Varnay (Alto), Matthew Best (Bass),
Stafford Dean (Bass), Samuel Ramey (Bass), Sarah Walker (Mezzo Soprano),
Cathryn Pope (Soprano), Philip Langridge (Tenor)
Conductor:  Riccardo Chailly
Orchestra/Ensemble:  London Sinfonietta,  London Sinfonietta Chorus
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1948-1951; USA 
 Date of Recording: 07/1983 
Venue:  Walthamstow Town Hall, London 
Length: 135 Minutes 18 Secs. 
Language: English 

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