Stravinsky - COE - Hi-Fi News

Beautiful though the string playing is in the ‘ballet blanc' Apollo (Stravinsky's preferred title) I was even more impressed by the COE winds and brass in Pulcinella, eg François Leleux's oboe solo in Serenata, or the jolly Vivo - for once not a succession of raspberries. ‘A backward look, of course, the first of many ... but a look in the mirror too' Stravinsky said of this concoction ‘after Pergolesi'. What sets Janiczek's interpretation apart is the contrasting tempi set for Menuetto and Finale. For Apollo with a more tart flavour, try the composer's 1958 London performance on BBCL 4253-2. In the Paris church venue here, Linn has found a very much better acoustic than for its Scottish CO/Janiczek Mozart series of SACDs.