Release Date: 07/08/2008
Run Time: 75:36

Igor Stravinsky was no natural born symphonist. Great as his ballets are, in comparison with such earlier Russian symphonist like Glazunov or later Soviet symphonists like Shostakovich, Stravinsky was a symphonic lightweight whose scores often sound more episodic than symphonic. Even in this superbly played collection of his Symphony in Three Movements, Symphony of Psalms, and Symphony in C (the student Symphony in E flat and the utterly unsymphonic Symphonies of Wind Instruments are understandably left out), the works sound more like attempts at symphonic argument than truly convincing symphonies. The fault lies not with the Berliner Philharmoniker, which executes Stravinsky's music with unfailing verve and virtuosity, but with music director Simon Rattle, who conducts Stravinsky's scores as if they were sequences of striking musical incidents rather than cogently argued works of symphonic art. The individual parts are all in the right places, but they fail to cohere into a logical, much less a dramatic, form. The result is more a musical variety show than a cogent musical argument. For equally well played but far more coherently structured readings of Stravinsky's symphonies, try Pierre Boulez's 1999 Deutsche Grammophon recording. The Berlin musicians once again deliver virtuosic playing, but Boulez is much better at Rattle at organizing the music into dramatic forms. EMI's recording is clean, hot, and vital. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide

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Release Date: 07/08/2008
Run Time: 75:36