Stravinsky: The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, Perséphone (3 CD set)

SKU: 1456

 

Winner of 3 Grammy awards—Best Classical Album, Best Orchestral Performance, and Best Engineered Album.

 

Composed by Igor Stravinsky.
Performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

L'Oiseau de feu brings us the fairy tale of Tsarevich Ivan and the beautiful Firebird in the garden of the ogre Kaschei. Le Sacre du printemps unleashes, as Stravinsky himself put it, "the awakening of nature, the scratching, gnawing, wiggling, of birds and beasts" in the vibrant arrival of the season. And finally, the love song for the woman who would become Stravinsky's wife, Perséphone too evokes the glory of spring but, unlike the brutal vigor of Le Sacre du printemps, through the more placid context of her compassion and love for the Underground god Pluto.