BBC Music Magazine
December 2021
Recording of the Month

Gramophone Magazine
November 2021
Editor's Choice

Presto Recording of the Week
27th August 2021

Isabelle Faust (violin), Alexander Melnikov (piano), Dominique Horwitz, Lorenzo Coppola, Javier Zafra, Reinhold Friedrich, Jörgen van Rijen, Wies de Boevé, Raymond Curfs

Stravinsky: Elegy, for solo violin
Stravinsky: Duo concertant
Stravinsky: The Soldier's Tale

Deeply scarred by the First World War and by the upheavals of the October Revolution in his homeland, Stravinsky found, with the help of the Swiss author Ramuz, a subject that resonated perfectly with his era.

In this music theatre piece inspired by an old Russian folktale, The Deserter and the Devil, the composer of The Rite of Spring explored new paths in the last months of the First World War, which would soon lead him to a very personal form of neo-classicism.

With this English version, in which Dominique Horwitz plays all the spoken roles in masterly fashion, the musicians assembled by Isabelle Faust have taken up the challenge of performing on instruments contemporary with the premiere.

As a result, the work reveals its true personality and its immensely original colours, keen and biting.

It is coupled here with two unjustly neglected gems by its composer, to mark the Fiftieth Anniversary of his death.