London Philharmonic Orchestra/Jurowski

Stravinsky Petrushka etc

LPO label

IF there is one quality that unites the three very different faces of Stravinsky on display in this classy set of performances of Petrushka, the Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Orpheus, it is refinement, embodied dually in the relatively restrained mastery of conductor Vladimir Jurowski and the supremely polished playing of the London Phil.

But it’s sometimes a one-size-fits-all approach: where is the elemental feel in Petrushka? The thunderously reiterative drumming that marks out the main scenes in the early part of the ballet is muted and distant in this performance, recorded in the Royal Festival Hall. The austere, objective and ritualistic qualities of the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, in its1920 version, which restores a few strands Stravinsky revised out later, are better served, though Jurowski warms the textures – my taste would have the ritual as objective and expressionless as stone. The playful and solemn elements in the ravishing and under-performed Orpheus, written in 1947 for the company later to be known as New York City Ballet, are nicely incorporated into this classical and elegant performance, framed in its atmosphere by the harp, which beguiles but resists seducing the listener.

Michael Tumelty