Title: Stravinsky in soft focus
Review: I have owned this CD for 20 years and listened to it countless times. Possibly the best Petrouchka suite I have heard, but certainly not my favourite Sacre. The Israel PO plays in a very romantic way (whether this is due to Bernstein artistic choice, or to lack of ensemble playing I don't know). This works really well in the more playful Petrouchka but takes a lot of edge away from the best moments of the Sacre. Compare the mysterious (almost creepy) opening of the Sacrifice scene in Stokovsky/Philadelphia with the plain atmosphere of the same first 10-20 measures in this recording. Or the wild, percussive, strings of the final Dance in Mehta/NY, with the much less focused sound of Israel PO. 5 stars for Petrouchka, 3 (if not less) for the Sacre...
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