Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & The Firebird Andrés Orozco-Estrada

• Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 1 "Adoration of the Earth":
• 1 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 1 "Adoration of the Earth": Introduction 03:41
• 2 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 1 "Adoration of the Earth": The Augurs of Spring - Dances of the Young Girls 03:11
• 3 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 1 "Adoration of the Earth": Ritual of Abduction 01:21
• 4 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 1 "Adoration of the Earth": Spring Rounds 04:01
• 5 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 1 "Adoration of the Earth": Ritual of the River Tribes 02:42
• 6 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 1 "Adoration of the Earth": Procession of the Sage 00:21
• 7 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 1 "Adoration of the Earth": Dance of the Earth 01:27
• Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 2 "The Sacrifice":
• 8 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 2 "The Sacrifice": Introduction 04:20
• 9 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 2 "The Sacrifice": Mystic Circles of the Young Girls 03:26
• 10 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 2 "The Sacrifice": Glorification of the Chosen One 01:31
• 11 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 2 "The Sacrifice": Evocation of the Ancestors 00:44
• 12 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 2 "The Sacrifice: Ritual Action of the Ancestors 03:27
• 13 Le sacre du printemps, Pt. 2 "The Sacrifice": Sacrificial Dance 04:40
• The Firebird Suite:
• 14 The Firebird Suite: I. Introduction 03:19
• 15 The Firebird Suite: II. The Firebird and Its Dance 00:17
• 16 The Firebird Suite: III. Variation of the Firebird 01:23
• 17 The Firebird Suite: IV. Ring Dance of the Princesses 04:48
• 18 The Firebird Suite: V. Infernal Dance of King Kashchey 04:31
• 19 The Firebird Suite: VI. Lullaby 03:43
• 20 The Firebird Suite: VII. Finale 03:14
• Total Runtime 56:07

Info for Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & The Firebird

All Igor Stravinsky needed to establish his worldwide reputation were three ballet works, composed in Paris between 1910 and 1913: L’Oiseau de Feu, Petrushka and Le Sacre du Printemps. It was in this period that the impresario Serge Diaghilev brought his Ballets Russes to Paris and invited the very best dancers, painters, choreographers and composers to work with his ensemble. After Diaghilev heard Stravinsky’s Feu d’Artifice in St. Petersburg and immediately recognised the potential of the music for ballet purposes, he commissioned Stravinsky to write the L’Oiseau de Feu. Its premiere at the Paris Opera was an enormous success and marked the beginning of the spectacular collaboration between Stravinsky and Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, which brought forth Petrushka and Le Sacre du Printemps.

This album combines the Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) and the 1919 L’Oiseau de Feu, (The Firebird Suite). The Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-infonieorchester), one of the first radio symphony orchestras in Germany, founded in 1929, is under the direction of its Chief Conductor, Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Born in Colombia and trained in Vienna, he is one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation, currently holding not only the position of Chief Conductor in Frankfurt, but also the position of Music Director of the Houston Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

"Those allergic to this score will find the decidedly Gallic results something of a revelation, the bejewelled textures of Ravel never far away. Those who think they've heard it all before should think again." (Gramophone Magazine)

Frankfurt Radio Symphony
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor

Andrés Orozco-Estrada
was born in Medellín (Colombia) and trained in Vienna. In September 2014, he took up the positions of Music Director of the Houston Symphony and Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. From the 2015/16 season, he also became the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He previously served as Principal Conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchestra, with whom he developed a highly successful musical partnership from 2009 to 2015.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conducts many leading orchestras worldwide, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the Orchestre National de France, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago. In the summer of 2014, he made his debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera conducting Don Giovanni, for which he was immediately re-invited to conduct La Traviata in 2017. Following a thrilling début the previous year, summer 2016 marked his return to the Salzburg Festival with Nicolai's opera Il Templario and – in place of Nikolaus Harnoncourt – Beethoven's Ninth with the Concentus Musicus Wien.

His engagements for the 2016/17 season feature débuts with the San Francisco Symphony in April and the Berlin Philharmonic in May. Orozco-Estrada and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony will give a series of concerts as orchestra-in-residence in Vienna and Salzburg, in addition to undertaking tours to Budapest, Warsaw, Monte Carlo, the Dresden Music Festival and across Spain. He will also accompany Colombia's outstanding youth orchestra, the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, on their first European tour, conducting eight concerts in Berlin and Stuttgart, at the Rheingau Music Festival, at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and at the styriarte in Graz. Furthermore, he will embark on his first European tour with the Houston Symphony.

Current releases on Pentatone are generating a great deal of attention: his recent recordings of Stravinsky's Firebird and the Rite of Spring with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony have been praised as “musical storytelling of the highest calibre” (Kölner Stadtanzeiger) and “captivating recordings” (Gramophone). Following his most recent release, the first CD in his Richard Strauss cycle with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (Ein Heldenleben and Macbeth), Gramophone labelled Orozco-Estrada “a fine Straussian”. He has also recorded the Dvořák symphonies 6, 7, 8 and 9 with the Houston Symphony, dubbed a “lively Dvořák with warm colours” by Pizzicato. Further recordings are in preparation. Complete symphonic recordings of Brahms and Mendelssohn are also available.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical studies on the violin before receiving his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997, he moved to Vienna where he joined the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky, at the renowned Vienna Music Academy. Orozco-Estrada currently lives in Vienna.

Booklet for Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & The Firebird