Richard was my doctoral advisor, so it always does me good to hear him mentioned. Almost everything he wrote was worth reading, despite his pompousness. You didn't need a degree in musicology to understand his writing, but you did need to possess a fascination with the complications of history. He was notoriously contrarian and dialectical in his thinking, so it was always amusing that he often advised his students not to be contrarian..
I first listened to this because it was in a Gunter Wand collection. It is the most un-Stravinsky piece I’ve heard by Stravinsky. He’s just not my cup of tea. But pulcinella is just beautiful. Now I can get the whole ballet. Thanks again for helping me spend my money.
An age ago the BBC did a survey of the the complete ballet recordings and plumped for Stefan Sanderling (son of Kurt) on Naxos. It's a great work. I will try the Abbado this week.
The Abbado recording is outstanding! I find that the complete ballet far surpasses the suite, even though I adore the suite. The arias are all by Pergolesi and sung in Neapolitan, not standard Italian. Stravinsky retained everything, including the lyrics, making it remarkable how excerpts from different operas blend into a somewhat coherent narrative. In fact, it was Diaghilev that provided Stravinsky with all the scores, originally published as Pergolesi's work. The collection assembled by Diaghilev even included a forgery by Alessandro Parisotti, a 19th-century composer who imitated Pergolesi’s style.
Oh how I love that record. It's so good that it made me unable to enjoy the suite version because it makes such a wonderful, compelling case for the entire work as a lengthy concert cantata.
There were so many versions of the suite (for example, the Marriner ASMF I grew up with), Abbado's full ballet was a revelation at the time (easily a reference). Not that anyone is interested, but I now prefer Chailly's Concertgebouw version on Decca, if only from a recording quality perspective.😊
Such a wonderful recording. Though I knew the work well, I didn’t know this recording until the early 2000s. I find the score deeply poignant at moments, as well (viz the flute/strings interludes in the final allegro) and I always feel very moved by the end, sunshine and all.
Interesting that given all the famous demanding brass pieces in his repertoire, Pulcinella has the most often used Stravinsky audition excerpt for the trombone. Petrushka for trumpet. Well, interesting for a geek like me
Although Abbado is the reference, I have a soft spot for Esa-Pekka Salonen. It was one of my first Stravinsky cds. Last Christmas I discovered here in youtube Sir Neville Marriner's, with dancers. Also very nice.
Wow, what a pleasant surprise to hear Richard Taruskin mentioned. He used to write regularly for The New Republic back in the 90s on Russian musical/cultural matters. I think he rather enjoyed his status as an enfant terrible, but he was always fascinating to read. Wesley
Richard Taruskin was a brilliant musicologist, but his arguments could often be tendentious. In one NYT article from the 90s, he argued the Harnoncourt-Leonhardt Bach cantata cycle was the most authentic because it was the ugliest (in keeping with the fire-and-brimstone texts Bach often had to set). Turns out that the period instrument players just hadn't figured out how to play their instruments yet, as later recordings by Koopman, Suzuki, and others show. (Not to mention that writers from the Baroque consistently extolled a soft, sweet tone, not a thin, harsh one.) As for being full of himself, I'm too young to have met him, but I've heard stories that he was a sexist who brutalized graduate students. Anyway, no doubt this is the reference Pulcinella; I can't name any other recordings of the complete ballet off the top of my head besides Stravinsky's own, which I learned the piece from. I tend to prefer conductors who emphasize the "neo" in neo-Baroque, emphasizing the Stravinskian elements (dry sonorities, crisp articulation, etc.). I particularly like Pons's and Suzuki's recordings of the suite.
There's a great one (in my opinion) by Marriner and St. Martin's that is well worth hearing that can be found on a double CD with great Stravinsky recordings by Muti. It also can be heard on a DVD with dancing choreographed by Spoerli which is wonderful. It has a special place for me.
It would seem the Stravinsky/Cleveland complete recording from 1953 would fit the definition of "reference" better than a later Abbado version. I grant Dave's discretion with his self-styled category, but not even a mention of this?
No, because it was out of print very quickly and didn't appear on CD until decades later. It never had time to achieve anything like the necessary market penetration, and therefore was irrelevant to this discussion.
I wouldn't want to konw someone who hated Pulcinella. Now. Have you discussed Symphony in Three Movements? Reference recording? Certainly one of my favorite scores. I'd pick Boulez.
