Aaron Copland & The American Concert Choir with Margaret Hillis Igor Stravinsky Les Noces (The Wedding) & Renard

High Quality Pure Analogue 180g Virgin Vinyl LP!
AAA Recording!
Audiophile Mastering By Kevin Gray From Original Master Tapes!
Although ten years separate the gigantic composition "Le Sacre du Printemps" and the dance cantata "Les Noces", the more recent work has several things in common with its scandalous predecessor. Originally Stravinsky planned to use a vast orchestra of 150 musicians, but decided after numerous attempts to settle for four pianos, percussion, voices and mixed chorus. Concealed behind the innocuous title is not a peasant wedding but once again an archaic ritual, "which takes possession of several of the central figures, drives them on and eventually crushes them with its unrelenting movement" (André Boucourechliev, Igor Stravinski, Fayard 1982). Ballet, rhythmic dance through and through, fuses with Russian melodic song and thereby exudes a folkloristic exoticism.
Rarely performed yet zestful and a sheer delight for the ears is the burlesque tale "Renard", a musical fable about Reynard the crafty Fox, the Cock, the Cat, and the Ram.
Stravinsky himself conducted this recording made with a grand line-up of America's top composers at the piano keyboard Samuel Barber, Lukas Foss, Aaron Copland and Roger Sessions. One certainly can't ask for more authenticity on record than these contemporary witnesses.
Under the baton of the composer, this recording brings together Samuel Barber, Lukas Foss, Aaron Copland and Roger Sessions, the American composer elite at the piano keys. A record can hardly offer more authenticity as a testimony to its time.
Igor Stravinsky: "Les Noces (The Peasant Wedding)", "Renard", Ragtime for 11 Instruments - various instruments. Soloists, the Columbia Chamber and percussion ensembles under the direction of Igor Stravinsky.

Features:

• 180g High Quality Vinyl
• Pure Analogue
• AAA Recording
• Audiophile Mastering By Kevin Gray From Original Master Tapes

Musicians:

• Samuel Barber, piano
• Aaron Copland, piano
• Lukas Foss, piano
• Roger Sessions, piano
• Mildred Allen, soprano
• Regina Sarfaty, mezzo-soprano
• Loren Driscoll, tenor
• Robert Oliver, bass
• The American Concert Choir with Margaret Hillis as director

Selections:

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Side A
1. Igor Stravinsky: Les Noces ("The Wedding")
Side B
1. Renard ("The Fox") - Revised Version
2. Ragtime For Eleven Instruments

Recording: September 1962 at American Legion Hall, Hollywood, and January 1962 at Manhatten Center, New York, by Edwin Michalski