Boulez’s Stravinsky
readings have polish and elegance, drawing
phrasing of brilliance and beauty. The
story of Diaghilev’s one-act, eight-scene
ballet, relates the amorous adventures
of the Commedia dell’arte
character, Pulcinella. Stravinsky’s
music is neo-classical in idiom and
based on themes by Pergolesi (1710-1736).
Pulcinella is a happy fusion
of the art of both composers. Stravinsky
"recomposed" Pergolesi’s harmonies
and arranged them for a chamber orchestra
according to the 18th century
spirit. The score also includes music
for three solo voices.
Personally I thought
the Overture rather stolid, too studied.
I was concerned that I would miss the
spontaneity, the essential joie de
vivre of other performances. But
I need not have worried for Boulez makes
the suite really sparkle. All three
soloists enter into the comic spirit
of the ballet, colouring their voices
uninhibitedly and enjoying the broad
humour immensely.
Stravinsky’s ballet
Le Chant Rossignol (The Song
of the Nightingale) after Andersen’s
tale The Emperor of China’s
Nightingale, was first performed
in February 1920 with only limited success.
Originally, its music was intended as
an opera on which Stravinsky worked
in 1909 but progress was interrupted
by ballet commissions. In the end the
composer transformed the music into
a symphonic poem, voices transferred
to instruments, and it was this transformation
that Diaghilev used. The three sections
are: a very oriental ‘Chinese March’,
evocative flutterings of the real nightingale
outraged by its mechanical equivalent
in ‘The Song of the Nightingale’ and
the colourful ‘Antics of the mechanical
nightingale’. Another presence is the
melancholy surrounding the dying emperor
before the real nightingale returns
to beguile. The score harks back to
the vivid colouring and exciting dissonances
of The Firebird but with something
of neo-classicism too. Boulez’s impressive
reading excites and enchants.
A welcome reissue of
polished, exciting readings of two Stravinsky
favourites.
Ian Lace
Ann Murray (mezzo-soprano), Anthony Rolfe-Johnson
(tenor), Simon Estes (bass) 
