There can be no doubt that
Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra want to incite a revolution, especially among western audiences who think they already know the Russian repertoire. These fiery performances of
Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy may go far to change the ways the pieces are performed and understood, especially since both works are delivered here with overwhelming force and persuasive confidence. If the Rite of Spring has become too familiar from the dreary and mutilated version used in Disney's Fantasia, or seems tame in other performances, including
Stravinsky's own, then
Gergiev's devastating rendition will come as a welcome alternative. This is what all the fuss was about when the audience rioted at the 1913 premiere.
Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra deliver the work in all its savage splendor, with a sense that the score holds more power than anyone previously suspected. Similarly, if the Poem of Ecstasy's excessive fervor and messianic outbursts have been replaced in many recordings by murky confusion and climaxes that are merely loud crashes, then this recording will set the record straight. When played with intensity and unabashed eroticism, the orchestra absolutely blazes and Scriabin's rapturous music at last achieves the delirium he intended.