Stravinsky: The Firebird; Bartok: Piano Concerto No 3, The Miraculous Mandarin, Prokofiev: Excerpts from Romeo & Juliet Suite No 2

On 24th October 2015 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Valery Gergiev took to the rostrum for his penultimate concert as Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. An explosive programme of Stravinsky, Bartók and Prokofiev – repertoire that always fires Gergiev s imagination – this live recording captures a major milestone in the Orchestra s history. The first LSO Live release made outside of the Orchestra s Barbican home, it showcases the very best music-making that Gergiev and the LSO can produce. Stravinsky s Firebird was an instant hit with audience and critics alike at its 1910 premiere it is a constant in Gergiev s repertoire. Piano Concerto No 3 is Bartók s final work, completed only four days before he succumbed to a long battle with leukaemia. The New York Times found Yefim Bronfman s interpretation of Piano Concerto No 3 ‘brilliantly charismatic’ and he is an acknowledged master of the great Hungarian s music, winning a Grammy award for his 2009 recording of all three Bartók Piano Concertos. A story of prostitution and violence, ‘The Miraculous Mandarin’, performed here in the suite version, is dramatic, mysterious and sinister. Incredibly entertaining, it s now one of Bartók s most well-known works and never fails to lure the listener into a deep, dark world of seduction and horror. The LSO s performance of the work on tour was met with critical acclaim: Closing the album is the encore from the concert, excerpts from Prokofiev s incredibly popular ballet ‘Romeo & Juliet’. That Gergiev chose this work to close his farewell concerts is not surprising, as the music and its composer have special signficance for the conductor and for the LSO. 2016 sees the world mark the 125th anniversary of Prokofiev s birth and Gergiev has long been a champion of the great Russian s music. His award-winning recording of the complete score on LSO Live is among the best-selling on the label, winning BBC Music Magazine Best Orchestral recording of 2011.
Most impressive, unsurprisingly enough, is the performance of Stravinsky s Firebird on the second CD … Gergiev still makes an alarming burst of speed at the end of Kashchei s Infernal Dance , taking even further risks elsewhere. With the addition of plentiful vocalising from the podium, The Princesses Khorovod can rarely have been moulded so personally. This is one score whose every detail continues to fire the imagination of its director, the playing suitably spectacular. An ecstatic audience is rewarded with a shard from Prokofiev s Romeo and Juliet, another beloved party piece. –David Gutman – Gramophone, December 2016This one s a cracker, a double-CD, recorded live in New Jersey by New York s classical radio station, with the LSO on tour and Gergiev flying in repertoire he has made his own. His choice of the Suite from Bartok s Miraculous Mandarin will please those who feel the full Monty ballet is a Monty too many; and the foot-stompin performance of the finale, at exactly the right speed, will blow your head off. Stravinsky s complete Firebird is ravishing, and the great hymn at the end has the New Jersey audience roaring. Yefim Bronfman s playing of Bartok s late Third Piano Concerto is ultra-lyrical; and there s a Prokofiev encore to bring the house down. –Michael Tumelty The Herald Scotland, 2nd December 2016PERFORMANCE: **** –Max Loppert BBC Music Magazine, February 2017