Ansermet: Firebird - French Decca SXL 2017 (UK jacket)
$
165
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Description
ITEM DESCRIPTION:
This beautiful and rare LP from Decca (SXL 2017, French pressing, UK jacket*, orange/silver WB label, stereo) features Ernest Ansermet's first stereo recording of Stravinsky's The Firebird (version 1910), set down in the rich acoustics of Victoria Hall, Geneva in 1957 with L'Orchestra de la Suisse Romande on glittering and brilliant form – a gramophone classic.
*Note: This is a French pressing (as regards the LP), but it is housed in an English Decca (UK) jacket.
As one of Stravinsky's most steadfast champions, Ansermet had known this score intimately for over 30 years, and brings tremendous authority and a lifetime's wisdom. This is truly one The Firebird's great performance on disc, hypnotic from first to last – a wonderful, thrilling, vibrant, poetic reading – unforgettable!
In his review of the Decca Eclipse LP re-issue of this performance, the critic M.E.O. wrote in his August 1978 review for The Gramophone: “Stravinsky described Ansermet as ‘a perfect executant of my works’, praising especially ‘his faculty for seeing what is actually in the score’, his lack of any ‘determination to find there what he would like to find’. Fidelity and precision are indeed the prime characteristics of these performances and there must be many listeners who are grateful for having learned their Stravinsky from them…In Arisermet, Stravinsky found an interpreter as insistent as he was himself on letting the notes speak for themselves, with the minimum of subjective 'interpretation', wouldbe effective gestures and dramatic exaggerations…Here and in The Rite and in The Firebird, Stravinsky's orchestral colours have a vivid clarity, the phrasing a sharp pungency; one is made freshly aware, too, of how much delicacy and subtlety of sound there is in these scores. Stravinsky again: ‘Ansermet's merit lies precisely in his ability to reveal the relationship between the music of today and that of the past by purely musical means.
“Brief summaries, then, of my notes on Ansermet's Stravinsky revisited. ECS 817: a lyrical, Rimskyan Firebird. Much delicacy and tenderness (the Princesses' Dance exquisitely done); edges finely moulded (the wind solos in the Prelude, for example) rather than sharp or hard; a good sense of drama (Kashchei makes a formidable entrance) but a certain lack of Slav luridness; a richly glowing crescendo to the final wedding scene; good, clear recording.”
CONDITION:
The gradations of condition I use are as follows: MINT, Near-Mint, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor.
The condition of the jacket is EXCELLENT. There is slight bumping at corners and minor creasing, but that is all. There are no seamsplits, bends, scuffs, creases, or owners' markings. The fine laminate finish is perfectly intact and the album remains solid, bright, and glossy – overall, a very handsome collector's copy.
The condition of the LP itself is similary EXCELLENT. Although the surfaces are not always CD silent, in general the playback is superb. If you must have a flawless or near-MINT copy, or one with silent surfaces, then please do not buy this LP. In my humble opinion, the sound is outstanding: warm, spacious and yet with plenty of detail. Overall, I rate is as an excellent collector's copy.
PLEASE NOTE:The images I've provided are of the actual item you are potentially bidding on - these are not stock images or images I've taken from other sites. Bid with confidence!
PAYMENT:
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REFUNDS:
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