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Original Message
RE: Stravinsky and Copland as a conductors
Posted by pbarach on March 9, 2017 at 14:44:54:
rbolaw wrote:
"one of his earliest conducting efforts was his Octet (1923 in Paris), and he then made a recording of it, which I have, in 1932. A rather disorganized mess, I would say. But he recorded the Octet (with l'Histoire du soldat) again in 1955, and again in stereo in 1961, and both of those are superb."
But I wonder whether the improvements in '55 and '61 were due to having better players (freelancers and NY Phil members in '55, LA freelancers in '61) or more rehearsal time. Perhaps the octet works fine without a conductor--there are several current recordings that have none, e.g., Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
I first heard the rite of spring in Stravinsky's 1940 recording with NY Phil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJQ-wAaU7cY
This is still a pretty good performance, from a time when major orchestras could not easily play it in their sleep. I think he knew what he was doing at the podium.
There is also the question of how much credit Stravinsky deserves for his later recordings when Robert Craft did the rehearsals (and conducted some performances that were misattributed for years to the composer).