A decent performance, despite the fact that Stravinsky is a bit of a stiff as a conductor.
There are some good shots of the principal players and I would like to know who they are. Tuba player is Bill Bell.
Hup
Very cool!
Stravinsky was a very experienced interpreter and public performer of his works, and, besides this Young People's Concert feature, and another, even later-career 1945 version of Firebird which can be purchased on DVD and my be lurking around the internet, there is also the 22-CD set issued by Sony, and many other examples documenting how he felt his music should sound at any given moment in his career***.
***Perhaps a bit off-topic for a trumpet website, this last caveat has been of some importance for me as a Stravinsky interpreter for years - throughout his career, Stravinsky frequently re-defined himself as an artist, and he frequently brought his past works along with him. A survey of his few recordings of the Rite of Spring show a progression from its place at the end of the hyper-romantic period of large symphonic/dramatic works through to the quasi-geometric austerity of neo-classicism. As for this and the other video of Firebird, the 1945 suite from the ballet is quite problematic. Stravinsky had lost the rights to the earlier full ballet version, as well as the shorter suite from 1919. I love that the later suite reintroduces so much of the music cut to make the first suite, however the orchestrational advances from the original ballet score to the 1919 orchestral suite have been further updated by 1945, and the (in)famously dry final 7/4 bars as scored in this final - copyrighted - version of the orchestral suite essentially recast what orchestra grandeur can sound like...this is an updating which I don't find the original materials begging for, and it has therefore always left me cold as a concertgoer.
So, this is a good start - Hindemith, Copland, Bernstein (of course), Elgar, and many other also left us fine examples of their own interpretations of their works. Mahler, Ravel, Gershwin, and others made sophisticated piano roll 'recordings' which I find similarly invaluable. A quick word to the wise - here speaking as both a performer/interpreter, and a composer: all of these examples are nearly-firsthand sources, but never mistake them as definitive documents. These are snapshots which can be emblematic of a type of music-making the composers valued, but what they left us as the 'recipe' for their music - their scores (mixed with a thorough knowledge of how to read these scores) are the definitive guides left for posterity. _________________ Daniel Bassin
Conductor/Composer/Trumpeter/Improviser/Educator
I play:
Monette - CORNETTE/PranaXLT-STC Bb/MC-35/Raja A Piccolo;
Kromat C-Piccolo; Thein G-Piccolo; Various antique horns
MPCs - Monette Unity 1-7D and DM4LD
Joined: 20 Jan 2002 Posts: 2163 Location: Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2017 10:00 am Post subject:
I recognized Harold Gomberg in the video.
(Decades ago when the NYP gave a performance at Brooklyn College, I had the honor of being the one that Mr. Gomberg asked for directions to the men's room.)
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
