Stravinsky / Prokofiev - Rite of Spring & Music from Cinderella - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This CD contains four of Adam's beautifully shimmering, texturally rich compositions for various combinations of one or two pianos and various percussion instruments. Features performances by noted pianist/conductor/new music champion Stephen Drury, who is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and has recorded for Tzadik, New Albion, Mode and more.

The Norwegian opera literature is a well concealed and all too little known gem in our national cultural heritage. There is general agreement that it begins with the Waldemar Thrane/Henrik Bjerregaard Singspiel The Mountain Story from 1824. And throughout the nineteenth century there were a number of Norwegian composers who wrote operas, most of them now long forgotten. With this we wish to make the music accessible to listeners in the hope of generating new interest in and discussion about why this part of our cultural heritage has been left to lie untouched.

Before the First World War, especially for the famous ballet ensemble InchLes Ballets RussesInch, one of the most important dance companies of the 20th century, and it's impresario Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky composed the first three of his great ballet music works for large orchestra, indeed, the most important of his ballets in general InchL'oiseau de feuInch (The Firebird) in 1910, InchPetrushkaInch in 1911, and InchLe sacre du printempsInch (The Rite of Spring) in 1913. The first of these ranks as a pioneering work of the early 20th century - and the third, regarded as a key work of 20th-century music due to it's extraordinary rhythmic and tonal structures, can both be experienced on this new from BR-KLASSIK - in live recordings with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under it's chief conductor Mariss Jansons, and in masterly interpretations. Diaghilev, a formative figure in 20th-century ballet, had founded the Ballets Russes ensemble in 1909 in Paris, where it first performed before moving to Monte Carlo in 1911. The first performance of Stravinsky's InchFirebirdInch took place on June 25, 1910 at the Paris Opera House, and InchLe sacre du printempsInch premiered on May 29, 1913 in the newly-built Théâtre des Champs-Élysées - a day that went down in history as one of the great artistic scandals of the 20th century. The furious protests from the Parisian public combined with the highly negative critical reviews all ended up making Stravinsky famous. His truly futuristic music has now established itself internationally and is an integral part of concert programs, and one can still hear why it so enraged audiences over 100 years ago. (InchThe FirebirdInch can be heard in Stravinsky's ballet version of 1945.)