Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring Nielsen: Symphony No. 5.(Sound Recording Review)

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Nielsen: Symphony No. 5. Paavo Jarvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Telarc CD-80615.

I know I've mentioned this before, but I can't help thinking when I see the name Paavo Jarvi of his father, Neemi Jarvi, and his fellow maestro, Paavo Berglund. Once I've sorted all of this out, I remember the younger Jarvi is now the principal conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony. Anyway, Jarvi is back after his Telarc disc of Stravinsky's Petrouchka and Firebird Suite with the composer's Rite of Spring. That isn't the news, though. It's the new disc's coupling, the Nielsen Fifth Symphony, that makes the papers.

The pairing works in several ways. First, it must be a difficult decision for a conductor and a record company to decide whether to produce a disc of familiar music with an enormous amount of marketplace competition or a disc of relatively unfamiliar music with the risk of nobody buying it. By providing both a seasoned warhorse like the Rite and a well-liked but lesser-known symphony such as Nielsen's Fifth, Jarvi can have it both ways. Second, the two pieces of music have a lot in common, each being written in the early part of the twentieth century (1913 and 1922 respectively) and each being unusual, somewhat radical, in its own way. They make good companions on CD.

The Rite, of course, was the most controversial work of its time, causing a riot during its premiere. But ...