Het Kamerorkest Brugge - Apollon Musagète (I. Stravinsky)

[@reur5427]

Magnificent performance and a magnificent recording!

[@arujunior3726]

👏👏👏Beautiful!!!

[@mercefort9034]

One of the best (if not the best) and more powerful version I have heard.

[@301250]

I first heard this ravishing piece on an album with the great St Martin in the Fields conducted by Neville Marriner decades ago and can't describe the emotions which this work evoked in me then, as words simply cannot do justice. The performance here by this superb ensemble is as good as that of StMF's. Praise the Lord.

[@dudleybrooks515]

As someone who is intimately familiar with the Balanchine choreography, I hesitate to make the following remarks -- since this is, indeed, a very beautiful performance. But it's always interesting to see the "liberties" that can be taken with a ballet score when the ballet is not being performed along with it. And I put "liberties" in quote marks because they are very small liberties ... but definite ones. Primarily it's tempo. More than half of the numbers are just enough too fast that the choreography could not be performed to them (the opposite of another otherwise very beautiful performance online where most of the tempi are *way* too slow for the choreography). One could argue that, since Balanchine choreographed it under the tutelage of Stravinsky, the tempi of the choreography are precisely the tempi Stravinsky wished. Also, some of the accents are so strong that, in my opinion, they contradict the smoother flow of the choreography they accompany. A surprising "liberty" is the performance of the dotted-eighth-plus-sixteenth rhythm, so prevalent in this score. (Stravinsky has said that the *musical* content of the piece is prosody, and I believe he was especially referring to that "trochee" rhythm -- a rhythm which, however, he used in all his music at that time, not just in Apollo.) Here, it is performed more like the (authentic) Baroque double-dotted rhythm ... which would be authentic for Bach and Handel ... but not for Stravinsky. But I trust that you will not let these "ballet purist" remarks by a dancer/choreographer lessen your enjoyment this excellent "pure music" performance of this exquisite piece. Instead, I hope you will have the experience that I have when I listen to Stravinsky's music of any of his periods: that it just grows and grows on you!

[@jaedth]

Magnificent performance of a wonderful work. Thank you very much.

[@emiliomangano377]

Una violinista fantastica in mezzo ad archi bellissimi

[@Mezzotenor]

Either I'm nuts, or performances of this ballet music just don't get better than the one here. I at first thought the ensemble was a tad small, but after hearing them play I gladly accept the reduced sonority in exchange for the more distinct dynamic contrasts and more agile interpretation. I should go to more chamber orchestra performances if, as seems to be the case here, they assemble the best available musicians.

[@Lengo67]

You're right. You're nuts and music doesn't get better than this.

[@dennischiapello7243]

I agree. I came to this right after listening to a muddy recording by Robert Craft and the LSO. I immediately noticed the clearer, more present sound, and then I realized how excellent the musical performance itself was. I have a sort of love/hate relationship with this score (which I won't try to explain,) but I'm going to listen happily to this to the very end! Just yesterday I had a similar experience hearing Copland's Appalachian Spring performed in the original version for 13-member chamber ensemble. Revelatory!

[@gabesarch]

Wonderful! Listen also to Ernest Bloch Concerto Grosso - String Orchestra and piano; Shostakovich String Orchestra version of 8th String Quartet, Barber Adagio for Strings, Bartok Divertimento for String Orchestra, Jenkins Palladio, Martinu Double Concerto for 2 String Orchestras, Piano and Timpani, Vaughn-Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and climax with the Tchaikovsky Serenade!!