Everyone who loves
Stravinsky's Petrushka and Le sacre du printemps has got to hear this disc. Of all the conductors who worked with
Stravinsky,
Pierre Monteux was easily the best, that is, the most technically proficient, the most lyrically expressive, the most rhythmically alive, and the most musically compelling. And of all the recordings ever made of Petrushka and Le sacre by
Stravinsky and the conductors who worked with him,
Monteux's recordings of the works with the
Boston Symphony are easily the best. No matter how well you know Petrushka,
Monteux's 1959 recording will illuminate colors you've never before heard and reveal dramatic depths you've never before suspected. And no matter how well you know Le sacre,
Monteux's 1951 recording seems to come not from a modern recording studio from a modern orchestra, but from the depths of time, a cave drawing giving shape, substance, and life. The
Boston musicians play like they were the best in America -- which, at the time, they may have been -- and RCA taped them as if it was the best recording company in America -- which, at the time, it may have been. And even today, RCA's sound is still first class, rivaling the best contemporary digital recordings.