Though some of the works are performed in later orchestrations, this selection of Stravinsky’s music for chamber forces spans more than 40 years, from the Two Poems of Balmont, composed in 1911, to the Septet of 1953, which includes some of his first forays into serial techniques. The rationale for the particular choice of pieces isn’t obvious, but the mix of the familiar – Ragtime, the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto and the Octet - with more rarely heard works like the Septet and the exquisite little Three Japanese Lyrics (which Stravinsky composed after hearing Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire for the first time) is nicely balanced.
The disc is the latest product of a long-term collaboration between the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Juilliard School in New York, and the ensemble, made up of students from both institutions, is clearly a very capable one. Conducted by Barbara Hannigan, they bring a nicely abrasive edge to Dumbarton Oaks, and a sinewy vigour to Ragtime, which is lent a real tang by the prominence of the cimbalom, though their account of the Octet sometimes seems a little underpowered.
The suavely flexible soprano soloist in the Balmont and Japanese settings as well as the Three Little Songs (which are subtitled Recollections of My Childhood) is a recent RAM graduate, Alexandra Heath, while the performance of the Concertino for 12 instruments (a 1950s orchestration of the early neoclassical work for string quartet, composed in 1920) is conducted by another academy alumna, Charlotte Corderoy.
Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify.
