A most attractive coupling of Stravinsky at his most genial. Not that Stravinsky himself in his own recordings allowed much geniality to emerge, for his manner even in these essentially happy works was clipped and generally stiff. Gibson is near the other extreme. The March which opens and closes the Danses concertantes here has a relaxed bounce to it to give the piece quite a different flavour, one I had not fully appreciated before. In principle, in relation to the composer's own dicta, not to mention his own recordings, Gibson is flying in the face of what was intended, but I can only report that the result for me is a revelation. A work which had seemed a relatively routine example of Stravinsky in his American period, 1942 vintage, becomes a positive delight, full of fun in memorable, magic ideas. In slow movements, both in the Danses concertantes and Pulcinella, gibson comparably allows a far more espressivo style, and the woodwind players of the ECO in particular imaginatively respond to that degree of freedom in phrasing, again with speeds generally slower than usual. In each work I took as my comparison, not just the composer himself (part of a 31-record set—CBS GM31, 2/82) but Neville Marriner. As a performance I would still count the Marriner/Argo version of the Pulcinella suite as the finest ever, not just superbly pointed but perfectly polished, and the recording still sounds splendid after 15 years. The ECO ensemble for Gibson is not quite on that level, but very commendable all the same, and the difference of coupling can safely dictate choice. The Marriner comparison in the Danses is with his Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra on HMV, and there his manner is far less genial, not so severe as Stravinsky's own but relatively close, where in Pulcinella he sparkles as much as Gibson. The new digital recording is excellent, full-ranging and well-balanced.'