Cage: 3 Dances, Reich: 4 Organs, Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

1. Part I, Adoration of the Earth, No. 1a, Introduction
2. Part I, Adoration of the Earth, No. 1b, The Augurs of Spring
3. Part I, Adoration of the Earth, No. 1c, Ritual Abduction
4. Part I, Adoration of the Earth, No. 1e, Games of the Rival Tribes
5. Part I, Adoration of the Earth, No. 1f, Procession of the Wise Elder
6. Part I, Adoration of the Earth, No. 1g, Adoration of the Earth
7. Part I, Adoration of the Earth, No. 1h, Dance of the Earth
8. Part II, The Sacrifice, No. 2a, Introduction
9. Part II, The Sacrifice, No. 2b, Mystic Circles of the Young Girls
10. Part II, The Sacrifice, No. 2c, Glorification of the Chosen Victim
11. Part II, The Sacrifice, No. 2d, Evocation of the Ancestors
12. Part II, The Sacrifice, No. 2e, Ritual of the Ancestors
13. Part II, The Sacrifice, No. 2f, Sacrificial Dance
14. Dance No.1
15. Dance No.2
16. Dance No.3

why is Stravinsky cut into gnarly pieces? - The 3 stars in my review is an average of 5 stars for the work and 0 stars for the way Amazon or whoever creates their download mangled the music files.I ve long been looking for a copy of the Stravinsky -- I had a recording of it that went missing many years ago. It is a marvelous and exciting rendition, but I made the mistake of buying the download, which inexplicably slices the work into segments and thereby destroys much of the flow. Perhaps this happens to all classical music but it really is a travesty that could be avoided easily if the preparation and pricing of the MP3 files were done with a bit of care rather than by what appears to be thoughtless automation. I seriously advise avoiding the download -- the material I received is virtually useless for me. I will try to knock on Amazon s door about this but I am not expecting any response from them.

Best two piano Rite of Spring, plus! Why isn t it in print? - I believe that this recording, when it came out on vinyl, may have been the premier recording of the TWO-piano version of Rite of Spring (there s also one-piano, one-piano-four-hands, and pianola versions), certainly, it was, and probably still is, the best. While the recording(at least on the budget-pressed vinyl) was a little ringy and reverberant, the performance is dynamic and exciting. The cd ad-on of two later pieces of avant garde history is simply a lovely bonus. SO WHY IS THIS OUT OF PRINT??!!!

Got it for Cage/Reich - 2 piano Rite of Spring is great too! - This is a 2fer reissue. I used to have the Cage/Riech LP which I loved. Cage s 3 Dances for Prepared Piano is probably my single most loved piece of his. Wonderful stuff with lots of gamelanish sounds. 4 Organs is about as minimal as Steve Reich gets and is pure process music: 1 chord gradually extended for a period of over 20 minutes. If you liked Drumming, you may like this (I do) but like much of Reich s early work it is very dry.The big surprise was the early 2 piano version of the Rite of Spring, which I didn t even know existed! According to the notes, this was a sketch version of the piece that was used during the dance rehearsals, while Stravinsky was still orchestrating and tweaking the piece. It works very well. Sort of akin to Mussorsky s Pictures at an Exibition, comparing the original piano version with the later orchestration. (Except that here, the same composer did both.....)The only problem is that the sound quality of this piece is a bit distorted at times, and sounds like it was recorded in the back of the recital hall. But the quality isn t that bad...Overall, very much worth the reasonable price of admission.