Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy

This is probably the most extraordinary Rite ofSpring to have been dreamt up since Stravinsky's own final (and finest) 1960 recording. Stravinsky himself said, in so many words, that The Rite was born from his unconscious. And although now isn't the time or place to ponder to what extent his - and our - unconscious minds are capable (if at all) of harbouring any memories of pre-Christian ritual, suffice it so say that an exceptional performance of The Rite should at least have us thinking about it as a possibility…and about why we respond to The Rite in the way that we do.

Among modern interpreters, there isn't anyone better than Gergiev at the important dual roles of showman and shaman. So many of the score's darker workings have a striking profile here - tubas bellowing strange moans, the bass drum sending shock waves around the performance space, the lower strings in 'Spring Rounds' almost 'exhaling' their notes, and, for once, giving a proper foundation to that most significant of quiet chords - the one where the Sage kisses the earth. Indeed, 'Earth' and the 'elemental' seem not so much cultivated in this performance, as an inherent part of it.

Either Gergiev has really pondered the 'sound stuff' of the Rite, or it just comes naturally to him and his players. Though whether nature or nurture, the end results make for a marginally more compelling overall listen than all the finest recorded Rites of the last four decades. More controversial is some of the timing of 'events', especially the delay of the ascent to the final chord, though when it arrives, you wonder if its shocking make-up has ever been as effectively exposed. The delaying tactics - theatrical pauses and suspensions - proved a little more problematic in the second half of Scriabin's Poem ofEcstasy - along with Gergiev's extremes of tempo in the piece. But should one even be thinking these thoughts when offered a Poem which openly embraces the extravagant wonders of the piece as this one does? Better to marvel at all the mysterious curves, the fabulous dark rushes of sound, the celebratory splendours, and the final resolution (dissolution?) into an uncomplicated glory of C major. Here, as in The Rite, the recording is superb.

There can be no doubt that Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra want to incite a revolution, especially among western audiences who think they already know the Russian repertoire. These fiery performances of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy may go far to change the ways the pieces are performed and understood, especially since both works are delivered here with overwhelming force and persuasive confidence. If the Rite of Spring has become too familiar from the dreary and mutilated version used in Disney's Fantasia, or seems tame in other performances, including Stravinsky's own, then Gergiev's devastating rendition will come as a welcome alternative. This is what all the fuss was about when the audience rioted at the 1913 premiere. Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra deliver the work in all its savage splendor, with a sense that the score holds more power than anyone previously suspected. Similarly, if the Poem of Ecstasy's excessive fervor and messianic outbursts have been replaced in many recordings by murky confusion and climaxes that are merely loud crashes, then this recording will set the record straight. When played with intensity and unabashed eroticism, the orchestra absolutely blazes and Scriabin's rapturous music at last achieves the delirium he intended.