The music on this double album, encompassing Stravinsky's three famous pre-World War I ballets plus assorted other works, was taken from live performances by the historically oriented orchestra Les Siècles and its conductor François-Xavier Roth between 2010 and 2013. Most have been issued previously, but there are good reasons to check out the whole set. One is that the documentation is more thorough here, with an interview-style reflection from Roth on the investigations of what Stravinsky's music might have sounded like ...
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The music on this double album, encompassing Stravinsky's three famous pre-World War I ballets plus assorted other works, was taken from live performances by the historically oriented orchestra Les Siècles and its conductor François-Xavier Roth between 2010 and 2013. Most have been issued previously, but there are good reasons to check out the whole set. One is that the documentation is more thorough here, with an interview-style reflection from Roth on the investigations of what Stravinsky's music might have sounded like in Paris in 1913. Another is that putting all of this music together reveals connections between Stravinsky and the more conservative Russian composers whose music held the stage in Paris around the same time. The Rite of Spring's style was not invented out of whole cloth but relied, to a degree and in interesting ways, on the music, by various composers, in a ballet called Les orientales. Further, the score of The Rite of Spring used here is an original version with some differences...
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