Stravinsky's The Firebird – Ballet & Suite
Stravinsky's The Firebird
The Gramophone Choice
The Firebird (1910 version). Song of the Nightingale.
Flemish Radio Orchestra / Yoel Levi
Glossa GCDSA922201 (71’ · DDD/DSD) Buy from Amazon
This striking SACD provides remarkably high-calibre recordings: both works sound pretty marvellous played back through normal CD equipment. But if you have a good four-speaker system and set the rear volume level gently and judiciously, the sound is almost unbelievably realistic. Moreover, the music is miraculously well played.
Yoel Levi’s totally idiomatic and involving Firebird, though not lacking drama, is warmly relaxed and evocatively atmospheric, with the Flemish orchestra playing with ravishing sensitivity. Orchestral textures are delectably diaphonous and translucent: everything seems to be in a magical haze, with iridescent colouring at the ‘Appearance of the Firebird’, while the music for the ‘Enchanted Princesses’ is exquisitely tender.
Arguably the piano-pianissimo opening is a little too quiet but the ear soon revels in the wide range of playing and sound: the whole progression of infernal music for Kashchei brings some quite astounding sounds. For the great closing rejoicing, the lovely horn melody seemingly appears out of the mist, and the climax builds slowly and magically until the brass enter. Then Levi pulls back a little, creating a spacious, no less involving climax.
In Song of the Nightingale, the orchestra again play with refinement and beauty, especially at the close. The extra dimension of the Glossa recording makes one feel the orchestra really is out there, beyond the speakers.
