STRAVINSKY: “LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS”; “SYMPHONIES OF...

STRAVINSKY: “LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS”; “SYMPHONIES OF WIND INSTRUMENTS.” Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal conducted by Charles Detoit. London 414 202-1 (digital). If Stravinsky’s epochal study in rhythmic contrast had been performed this way at the premiere in 1913, history might never had recorded the scandal of the occasion. London’s engineers spotlight the winds, often at the expense of the strings, while Montreal’s bassoon lacks the requisite pungency for the famous solo in the introduction. Texture concerns Dutoit more than creating tension through metrical gearshifts, and the essential dance impulse is never re-created. “Symphonies of Wind Instruments,” in the original version, fares better in a bracing reading.