Salonen: Conducts Stravinsky-the Recordings On Sony

Sony Music Entertainment is pleased to announce another ten releases in its increasingly comprehensive series of Classical Masters. These new box sets contain classic interpretations by some of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen is particularly renowned for his interpretations of 20th-century music not surprising as Salonen is himself a brilliant composer and one of his specialities is Stravinsky. A new set brings together his Sony Classical Stravinsky recordings with orchestras in London and Stockholm, including all the well-known ballets The Firebird is Classic fms top recommendation (intoxication and visceral excitement), while MusicWeb International raved about The Rite of Spring (I have never heard hysteria like that thrown off with such velocity in the howling violins of the final Sacrificial Dance). Besides ballets, the box contains less popular masterpieces such as the Cantata, Renard, the works for piano orchestra and the towering opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex (a brilliant subtle recording allows the glowing mezzo of Anne Sofie von Otter to soar New York Times).