Details
Honegger: Pacific 231/ Stravinsky: Petrouchka

This very welcome entry in Westminster's revival of Scherchen's treasured LP recordings features shorter works by Arthur Honegger. Pacific 231 is a famous cornerstone of 1920s modernism, a sound portrait of a railroad engine, encapsulating the mechanistic power of the new age. "Rugby" captures the ebb and flow of fast-moving physical effort. The "Symphonic Movement" has Stravinskyan dash and drive. Scherchen does all three with panache and also captures the tender beauties of the Pastorale d'été and the other works. Such care with miniature gems is typical of Scherchen's art, as is his very personal interpretation of Stravinsky's Petrouchka, with its driven, often manic depiction of the ballet's fairgrounds atmosphere and a palpable sense of menace in scenes like The Moor's Room. Like no other recorded Petrouchka, Scherchen's links the work to the barbarism of Le Sacre du Printemps, with which Stravinsky followed it. The mono sound shouldn't put you off; this was state-of-the-art in 1954 and still sounds good. --Dan Davis