Stravinsky Histoire Du Soldat - Speakers Corner Philips 180g LP

Mint-
Cleaned and Demaged

TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the October 2011 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

The creation of "Histoire du Soldat" is closely connected with actual incidents during the war. Because the local theatre was closed in 1918, the last year of the war, Stravinsky and the Swiss writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz decided to create a work that did not demand a large venue or big audience to be effective. The result was a theatrical work for a small ensemble consisting of a narrator, two actors, a dancer and seven musicians. On a par with the sparsity of the resources is the tightly knit construction of the work in which the scenes and musical sections are strung together like a suite. Just as in his ballets, Stravinsky relies on the dance-like energy of his music, which not only includes various march rhythms but also the tango, waltz and ragtime. The spoken word is also brimful of rhythmic vitality and is impressively rendered by the enormously adaptable voices of Jean Cocteau as the Narrator and Peter Ustinov as the Devil. Igor Markevitch urges on the excellent musicians in his little orchestra with élan and accuracy, with the young Maurice André’s brilliantly performed trumpet part being particularly conspicuous.

"Markevitch's recording of The Soldier's Tale can be considered definitive. ...The conductor's reading is suitable anti-Romantic, crisp, taut, and unsentimentalized though never cold. The playing of the seven instrumentalists is unassailable..." - Andrew Quint, The Absolute Sound, October 2011, Issue 216, Pg. 135

It is pointless to look for a recording that is remotely as good as this one. It doesn’t exist!

Features:
• 180g Virgin Vinyl
• High Quality Pressing
• Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering

Musicians:
Ensemble de Solistes
Manoug Parikian, violon
Ulysse Delecluse, clarinette
Henri Helaerts, basson
Maurice Andre, cornet a pistons
Roland Schnorkh, trombone
Joachim Gut, contrebasse
Charles Peschier, percussion
Igor Markevitch, conductor

Selections:
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Histoire du Soldat
1. Marche du Soldat
2. Le violon du Soldat
3. Musique champetre
4. Marche royale
5. Petit Concert
6. Tango
7. Valse
8. Ragtime
9. Dance du Diable
10. Petit choral
11. Couplets du Diable
12. Grand choral
13. Marche triomphale du Diable

Recorded October 1962 at the Théâtre Vevey, Switzerland, by Vittorio Negri.