[ Naxos / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 26 February 2016
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Stravinsky conceived the idea of a small-scale theatrical work towards the end of the First World War. Collaborating with Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz and painter and designer René-Victor Auberjonois, he wrote Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale), derived from a Russian folk tale by Alexander Afanasyev. It is scored for narrator, two speakers and an instrumental septet - 'to be read, played and danced' as there is also a non-speaking dancing rôle. The Faustian morality tale is rendered as a music drama of extraordinary rhythmic charge and gripping power.
"a fine performance all round…ensemble values are high, with actors and instrumentalists nicely integrated and a strong sense of give and take that reflects the recording's theatrical origins" Gramophone