Igor Stravinsky - Works of Igor Stravinsky (Disc 1)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Works of Igor Stravinsky - Disc 1: Ballets vol. 1

Columbia Symphony Orchestra; Igor Stravinsky, conductor

25 tracks; 63 minutes

The Firebird (1910)

Scherzo à la Russe (1944)

Scherzo Fantastique, Op. 3 (1908)

Fireworks, Op. 4 (1908)

There's a bunch of incredibly good music blogs around, and I don't pretend I can add a lot to what they are doing. I don't have a particularly large or noteworthy CD collection, but one of my prized possessions is the great Sony Stravinsky set, which I believe is now out of print (though it doesn't go for much on places like Amazon Marketplace (30 bucks!? I mean come on, that's the best bargain I've ever seen, you'd all better be on it like a fat kid on twinkies)), and I have never seen it posted anywhere apart from a FLAC rip which at 22 CDs comes to about, oh let's see, a gazillion Rapidshare (yeah, Rapidshare) links and basically weeks of downloading to get. So here I am posting it in 22 easy to get Mediafire links! Yay!

This set is really really cool in that almost everything is conducted by Stravinsky himself. Granted, he wasn't the most gifted of conductors, and I've heard many people say nasty things about his interpretation of HIS OWN MUSIC! I mean, come on, this is about as real as it gets, in my opinion, and frankly, his Rite -though admittedly not as visceral and wild as say Ozawa's or Salonen's- is up there with the finest recordings of it around. Just sayin'. So get this amazing document of this great composer's music. Alright?

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