The partnership of Nott and the Bamberger Symphoniker has produced an ensemble to be reckoned with on the European music scene. This is a very fine Stravinsky disc, which finds the augmented orchestra in great form.

Stravinsky's marvellous score is so packed with detail that one hears new things at every hearing, and the Bamberger's performance is no exception. Stravinsky struggled with the notation of The Rite for many years, trying to simplify and clarify the dense and highly complex writing of the original 1913 version so that orchestras could realise the sounds he heard in his head. Nott elects to use the 'Re-Engraved Edition of 1967' rather than the more usual 1947 version. This is a corrected version of the 1952 Edition, with re-engraving of 'Evocation' and 'Sacrificial Dance'.

Rather than treating 'The Rite of Spring' as an abstract orchestral tone-poem, both conductor and players appear to have the ballet's scenario firmly in mind. Significantly, Nott pays a great deal of loving attention to the gentler and quieter movements, rather than using them as mere passing interludes in the more spectacular and noisy parts of the score. Thus we hear The Rite in the round as it were, with its full emotional and dramatic range. The opening Introduction has its high-register bassoon soloist make the most of Stravinsky's 'ad libitum' instruction, and the following representation of a rapidly burgeoning Russian Spring, with its shooting and spreading of tendrils and roots is very vivid. A true sense of primal joy emerges near the end of 'The Augurs of Spring', with a lightness which is most engaging.

'The Ritual of Abduction' goes helter-skelter, with some great horn cries, holding their bells in the air as Stravinsky directs. The 'Spring Round Dances' find the strings digging into their earthy chords with full bows as if they were gravity itself, rhythmically underpinned by the satisfyingly large and deep bass drum. The 'Ritual of the Two Rival Tribes' is thrillingly barbaric and confrontational, leading to some wild and nasty noises from the trilling, shrieking winds and horns at its climax. My only disappointment is with the orchestra's rather tame Tam-Tam, which lacks the high-frequency hiss and spit on its sharp crescendo rolls: these add so much to the spectacle on many other orchestra's recordings.

At the Introduction to Part 2, Nott and the orchestra conjure a memorably unearthly sound as the primal magic invests the gathering, with some beautifully ethereal sonorities, quite akin to Bernstein's seminal version with the NYPO from 1958. Tension then builds until the final Sacrificial Dance, which although unleashed not quite as savagely as Bernstein's, sweeps forward as a terrifying and implacable conclusion as the young girl finally snaps her neck, her body being raised aloft to the Gods of Spring.

Thankfully, the filler on this disc is not another Firebird, but the more urbane Symphony in E flat, given a performance to match the very fine one of Kristjan Järvi (To the New World and Beyond - Kristjan Järvi). Nott's first movement rolls over one like a Panzer division in this 'War Symphony' (as Stravinsky called it.) I particularly liked the tongue-in-cheek sardonic humour of the slow moment, oddly from music originally destined for a Stravinsky score for Hollywood's 'Song of Bernadette' film.

Tudor have produced a recording which does full justice to the huge orchestral forces, with a large dynamic range, immersive hall recreation in multichannel, and detail aplenty. Drums play a vital part Shamanic rituals, and although not conspicuously closely miked, their underlying rhythmic lift and stunning cannonic fusillades are a real feature of Tudor's spectacular sound field. One of the best-recorded Rites available and a magnificent achievement from Nott and his orchestra.

Copyright © 2008 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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Again, I must profess liking a different version of Stravinsky to my fellow site reviewer Geohominid.

As he rightly notes, Jonathan Nott has transformed the Bamberger Symphoniker into a force to be reckoned with in much music but I find this disc curiously uninvolving. The playing is largely note perfect (although I suspect from some slightly reticent entries and uncertain tuning that the Rite of Spring might be derived from concert performances) but it is as though we are hearing a crack orchestra of sight-readers who understand nothing of the internal tensions or the phrasing of individual lines. Thus, crucial motifs are lost part way through (the conclusion to Part 1 best exemplifying this) and all sections merely sound as though they are playing the notes but not music on more than one occasion. It is not a patch on the performance contained here: Rhythm Is It! - Soundtrack

I would agree with the description of the Symphony in 3 Movements as a tank flattening the (musical) terrain in front of it and I found the performance lacking in the verve and wit as exemplified in To the New World and Beyond - Kristjan Järvi although the Bamberger performance is arguably more lustrous and more tidy.

The recorded sound is good, very good with clear identification of the staging of the orchestra and a great deal of detail that is naturally conveyed - well, when the orchestra and Nott decide to let us hear such details anyway!

Sadly not really recommendable given the stiff competition for the Rite of Spring and the mentioned disc for the Symphony.

Copyright © 2008 John Broggio and HRAudio.net

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