Recording of the Month – March 2016

The first time I heard Greek-born, Russian-based conductor Teodor Currentzis and his period-instrument ensemble and chamber choir MusicAeterna was in 2009, when they recorded Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas for the Alpha label. Like many other listeners I was immediately struck by the passion, excitement and sheer craziness of the performances Currentzis elicited from a line-up that included soprano Simone Kermes and baritone Dimitris Tiliakos.

Currently Artistic Director of the Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Currentzis has since gone on to make original and highly-praised recordings of the music of Rameau, Mozart and Shostakovich. Now we have an equally distinctive recording of Stravinsky’s revised 1947 version of The Rite of Spring. It, too, has already garnered much critical acclaim; though there are dissenting voices, with Kate Molleson in the Guardian calling it “all too easy, too knowing”.

Perhaps Molleson was expecting some kind of Gergiev-like turn (the Russian conductor’s ferociously muscular 2001 recording with the Kirov Orchestra is certainly among my favourites) from a conductor who has a reputation for being something of an iconoclast and for wanting to shake classical music up a...