Stravinsky: Petrouchka, The Firebird Suite, Scherzo a la Russe

Any temptation to ignore yet another release of the ubiquitous Petrouchka and the Firebird Suite should be resisted, for these performances are really special. Petrouchka pulses with life; Järvi and his excellent orchestra put you right in the middle of Stravinsky's surrealistic carnival, rendering the dances with vibrant energy and the slower narrative sections with command of mood and atmosphere, as in the menacing In the Moor's Room or in the scene of Petrouchka's death. It's as if conductor and musicians determined they'd play the score as if it was newly-minted; it has the freshness of discovery. The Firebird Suite shares that quality too, and the early little Scherzo makes for a nice filler. Along with Järvi, the heroes of this disc are the orchestra, which plays with razor-sharp accuracy and polish, its soloists, who contribute innumerable virtuoso passages full of character, and the engineers who capture it all in stunningly vivid sonics. --Dan Davis