Stravinsky - Apollo, The Rite Of Spring (City Of Birmingham Symphony Orch/Rattle, 1989)

Picked up this cracking little 80s recording recently for a couple of reasons: I like Rattle's Stravinsky in general, and also here was a work of Igor's that I hadn't heard before.  Apollo, or Apollon Musagète in its full original title, is a two-tableaux ballet dating to the late 1920s and centred around the Muses of Greek mythology.  The recording here by the Birmingham Symphony under Rattle is Stravinsky's 1947 revision of Apollo.  In contrast to the strident, outrageous in its time Rite, Apollo is gentle, lyrical and almost Romantically lush, making it a great fit for Rattle, with a great sounding orchestra.  The Rite Of Spring that accompanies Apollo on this disc is also the 1947 version, and doesn't go for over-the-top fireworks but brings out lots of nice subtleties.  A really enjoyable collection overall.

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Igor Stravinsky at SGTG:

Agon (plus bonus post: Firebird, Petroushka & Rite, Rattle 2017)

Aldous Huxley In Memoriam/Pribaoutki (live 2022)

Frank Zappa (BBC Symphony Orchestra / uBu Ensemble) - Total Immersion at The Barbican, London (19th March 2022)

With the Proms posts over, here's a 'Total Immersion Day' broadcast from earlier in the year.  Taking a fresh look at the Zappa music of the London Symphony Orchestra, Perfect Stranger and Yellow Shark eras, and more besides, the day's events also threaded in Zappa's formative influences as a composer.  This gives us a great take on Varèse's Intégrals as well as some lesser-known Stravinsky, in his late work written in memoriam of Aldous Huxley and the miniature song-cycle Pribaoutki from 1914.

For Zappa's music, the 'Total Immersion' concerts were divided between the full force of the BBC Symphony Orchestra to play the LSO-era works, and the contemporary ensemble uBu for the rest.  From the former, we get the lushly-orchestrated version of Pedro's Dowry, the complementary ballet pieces Bob In Dacron and Sad Jane, and the full-length Mo 'N Herb's Vacation.  The ensemble play The Perfect Stranger, Outrage At Valdez, Dog/Meat and Be-Bop Tango, giving full vivid life to Zappa's musical colourings.  Taken together, this broadcast is a great presentation of unique music, made even more informative by a couple of chats with Negative Dialectics Of Poodle Play author Ben Watson.

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Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Wazoo (Live 1972) 

Road Tapes Venue #2 (Live 1973)

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Stravinsky - Agon / Schuller - 7 Studies On Themes Of Paul Klee (1966)

Been having a bit of a Stravinsky week, following a recent re-broadcast of the concert below.  But first, here's a great little record by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which features one of the composer's later works.  Agon, completed in 1957, is a single-act ballet that dates from Stravinsky's late period when he started getting into twelve-tone rows.  It still features his flair for bold rhythms, loads of wild colour in the strings and brass, and has neat little solos for mandolin.  Reminded me of orchestral Zappa more than once, and really shows Stravinsky's influence on him.

Agon is paired on this album with Seven Studies On Themes Of Paul Klee (1959) by Gunter Schuller (1925-2015).  As well as a composer, Schuller was a jazz musician, playing on one of the Birth Of The Cool sessions, and doing occasional conducting of Mingus' work; Schuller is credited with coining the term "third stream" for the confluence of jazz and classical music, even if the concept itself dated back to Gershwin's time.

Schuller's seven representations of Klee paintings in music range from dense, dramatic orchestration in Antique Harmonies and An Eerie Moment, to outright jazz stylings in Little Blue Devil, to plain weirdness - The Twittering Machine sounds like an avant-garde cut-up of a Woody Woodpecker cartoon soundtrack.  Lots of fun.

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bonus Stravinsky - conducted by Simon Rattle
 
A concert broadcast from September 2017 at the Barbican, London, in which Sir Simon Rattle took the LSO through Stravinsky's legendary breakthrough ballets Firebird, Petrushka and Rite Of Spring in a single evening.  Exhilarating stuff, expertly executed.

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