Stravinsky: The Firebird / The Rite of Spring

In the Munich performances of 1998 and 1999 documented here, Lorin Maazel conducts Stravinsky – a combination that could hardly be more suitable. Maazel is world-renowned as an infallible conductor, a conductor who is able to masterfully manage large-scale works and shape emotional climaxes with a cool head, so that the effect is all the greater and more irresistible. Joining him is the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, which under Maazel's chief baton from 1993 to 2002 achieved a new level of musical culture, precision, and flexibility. Stravinsky's cleverly organized, dazzlingly sonorous, and rhythmically demanding ballet works gain a magical power with these performers. The works presented here mark two key moments in Stravinsky's compositional development in the period before the First World War.