This recording is the second of a highly rated three volume Stravinsky series recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with then Principal Conductor (now Conductor Emeritus) Vladimir Jurowski. The first volume of the series was featured in Gramophone Editor’s Choice: The Best New Classical Recordings in September 2022.

This series documents Jurowski’s year-long Stravinsky festival with the LPO in 2018, ‘Changing Faces’. The festival surveyed Stravinsky’s works, programmed chronologically alongside his influences and those he influenced.

The Fairy’s Kiss is a work close to Jurowski’s heart. The LPO had performed this work 17 times under Jurowski’s baton by the time of this recording, and the partnership between the conductor and the Orchestra culminates in this performance.

Stravinsky was in the audience, as an 8-year old, for the premiere performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty, a performance that was to have a profound effect on him as a composer. It is rare to find a live performance recording of The Sleeping Beauty excerpts. The most recent commercial recording of the Pas de deux was released in 2012.

Vladimir Jurowski is one of today’s most sought-after conductors. His LPO performances from Stravinsky’s catalogue covered his 20-year association with the Orchestra, culminating in him including Stravinsky’s Jeu de cartes in the programme of his final concert as Principal Conductor in August 2021.

Stravinsky’s music in the hands of Jurowski delivers live in concert a focus and clarity that is beautifully preserved and realised on these recordings.

“Jurowski gets remarkably detailed playing in both, wind instruments keen and clear. These are very much live performances, given to spontaneous bursts of energy and occasional instability.” – Financial Times on ‘Jurowski conducts Stravinsky Vol. 1’ (★★★★)