The firebird

"Two fairytale works by a revered Russian master and his genius student - Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'or suite (1907) and Stravinsky's The Firebird (1910) - make a rich pairing in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's disc, with its chief conductor, St Petersburg-born Vasily Petrenko. Composed a few years apart, these works demonstrate Rimsky's brilliance as an orchestrator and Stravinsky's debt, for all his radicalism, to the Russian tradition. The playing is voluptuous, alive and controlled: lurching, low brass ... , gleaming, rumbustious woodwind ... , strings scurrying and sparkling ... Brilliance of detail and narrative drive have to be held in perfect balance in Firebird. Petrenko and the RLPO, expert in both, achieve this here".

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"Recording of the week: There's certainly nothing hackneyed about their new album of Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, and as with previous projects their affinity with this repertoire is writ large in every bar. The pairing is an intriguing one, consisting of two early twentieth-century works depicting corrupt leaders who come a cropper thanks to a magical bird ... The sound-worlds of the two pieces are as strikingly similar as the stories which inspired them, with shimmering strings and glittering brass and high percussion conjuring an atmosphere of exoticism and enchantment, and Petrenko's acute ear for balance ensures that every magical detail registers ... The clean, spare textures reminded me more than ever of the kinship between The Firebird and Petrushka or even The Rake's Progress".

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"Litton allows [The Firebird] more delicacy than some of its later interpreters, to its great advantage in such moments as the very opening ... If Kashchey has sounded more formidable in the hands of others (including the composer himself), Litton gives the old sorcerer a spectral quality that is at least as sinister. It is all beautifully played, not least thanks to a woodwind section of players who really listen to one another".

"What we have is an excellently played, brightly recorded performance of the ballet, conducted with verve by François-Xavier Roth ... Well worth hearing".

"Begge værker er et orgie i orkesterlyd, og Nelsons er bestemt ikke nærig med farverne. Særligt står den uhyggelige åbning af Ildfuglen mere distinkt og ildevarslende, end man er vant til at høre".

"Sokhiev's Rite of Spring takes heed of the work's many textural contrasts, with plenty of bite and bounce from the strings in the 'Mystical Circles of the Young Girls' and darkly wailing lower strings in 'Spring Rounds' ... I'd call it a driven performance rather than especially elemental".

"This is as unruffled and well-ordered a reading as I've heard for some time, eliciting little of the sense of shock this work should always invoke. The playing ... is entirely assured, however, and while the performance overall seens a touch too comfortable to wholly convince, there's still much to admire".

"The best moments in this Firebird aren't the raucous ones. Petrenko homes in on the fine details, like a craftsman working with gold leaf and the finest of brushes ... The Khorovod and Berceuse are incredibly beautiful, handled like porcelain, the conductor happy to linger over tender moments. From its opening pinpoint trumpet cock-crow, Petrenko's Rimsky is just as exquisite ... This is a most attractive release".