Sony’s 1991 Igor Stravinsky Edition brought all the stereo recordings either conducted or supervised by the composer together in a boxed set, with a bonus sampling from his pre-LP discography. While this important collection is still available as a unit, individual volumes selling separately are difficult to locate. Now Sony offers Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: The Original Jacket Collection. Eight Columbia Masterworks Stravinsky LP releases are replicated on as many CDs, from the front and back sleeves to the original sequence of music. You need a magnifying glass to make out the liner notes with their drastically reduced typeface. Otherwise you can read the notes via a multi-media CD-ROM program bundled with the discs. The amount of music on each disc directly corresponds to its LP counterpart, which results in less than generous timings. Several late-1980s CBS Masterworks Stravinsky CDs, for instance, present the ballets and symphonies in more economic couplings.
So why bother with the Original Jacket Collection? There are two reasons: One, these new remasterings improve upon previous CD transfers; two, there’s a bonus disc with rare material from the 1940s, featuring the New York Philharmonic, the Woody Herman Orchestra, and violinist Joseph Szigeti. This material is stunningly restored from the original laquers, and sounds amazingly vivid and full-bodied. When will Sony work similar miracles upon its remaining mono era Columbia/Stravinsky holdings? Whatever editorial reservations we may have, these are important recordings. Stravinsky knew how his music should sound, and usually got the results he wanted. True, there are recorded interpretations of certain Stravinsky works that are slicker and better engineered. Few, however, match the authority and sense of occasion you get from the proverbial horse’s mouth.
