Audition: Stravinsky – Petrushka Neeme Jarvi - Swiss Romande Orchestra, 1993

 Audition: Stravinsky – Petrushka

Neeme Jarvi - Swiss Romande Orchestra

Recorded 1993 Chandos

As you might expect from this label, the sonics are fantastic and the playing is very good too. There are countless details which bring out of this recording. New thinking I’m phrasing too. Crucially Jarvi gives his absolute attention to the things which make this work dramatic - pauses, percussion, keyboards and bells, all beautifully balanced.

It’s a fast, full-blooded and funny reading. The characters are not perhaps as detailed but the action is. There’s an extraordinary delineation of lines in the instrumental groups – caught well – and fantastic solo winds and brass but also violins.

Someone will find Jarvi’s speeds rather brisk especially at the famous dances where dance may brisker than someone would like bbit the detail holds up. They’re not too fast though and they are certainly compelling. 

Nothing is weak and most of the time that recording is better than the rest in a packed field. With speed and detail one might say this is the best as a concert piece because I imagine the dancers would be sorely stretched. My final point – in humour, phrasing and internation especially in the balance of the low brass this reading sounds more Russian than Parisian.

Can’t fault it and it’s so attractive - why would I.

Interpretation: 10 out of 10

Recording: 10 out of 10

Performance: 10 out of 10.