Mixed Media

CD of the Month

Stravinsky's Muses

They may have been imaginary dancers and singers who inspired Igor Stravinsky to compose his bass-based Concerto in D. However, his music has mostly been interpreted by men— for example, Jerome Robbins with The Cage.

The Camerata Salzburg likely chose the title of their latest CD for another work anyway—and the collective instrumentalists realize it with such lightness, indeed with ethereal beauty, as if Apollon Musagète had never set foot on Earth. George Balanchine would have been delighted with this recording, which makes his ballet appear even brighter than it already is.

The same goes for his colleague Robbins at the New York City Ballet who gave the other two pieces a moving and lasting stage presence. This also applies to the Concerto in E-flat for Chamber Orchestra in 1972 which is better known by the place name of its musical premiere: Dumbarton Oaks. Stravinsky composed it in 1938 for the 30th wedding anniversary of the homeowner, Robert Bliss. As clear and yet as complex as the Camerata makes it sound, the concerto could just as easily have served as a motivational boost at a conference at the end of World War II—it was in this very country house called Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C. that the founding document of the United Nations was prepared in 1944.

Hartmut Regitz

Igor Stravinsky: Apollon musagète, Concerto in D,  Dumbarton Oaks, Camerata Salzburg, conductor: Giovanni Guzzo; www.channelclassics.com