Nice Mandarin, ho-hum Baldie, forgettable Rite

On package the album's repertoire looked absolutely tantalizing; Mussorgsky's Night On Bald Mountain (reputedly original, not Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement), Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin Suite and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

The first few minutes of the Mussorgsky is a knockout, however as the music progresses the excitement kind of fizzled off. Bartok's "abridged" Miraculous Mandarin in concert suite where the works ends abruptly at the climax is the high point of this disc and its a pity Salonen did not record the full ballet including choir. I especially love how the orchestral textures especially when the piano and winds blend seamlessly with each other. The chase "fugue" is taken at a much faster clip than usual but a little too fast and thus the savagery feels rushed which is the only flaw for that piece.

As for Rite, this is arguably the biggest letdown of the disc. Salonen and his LA players doesn't produce anything to set them apart from already crowded field of recordings. The excitement is probably robbed off from "distant" engineering with too throbbing bass drum prominence disturbing. Maestro Salonen's earlier recording with Philharmonia trumps their LA counterparts in every department. Take instant the french horns in "Games of Rival Tribes" by Philharmonia sounds like Arnie on steroids compared with velcro-clad Micheal Keaton's Batman which exactly how I imagine the LA horns sounded. Better investment somewhere else I guess.

Recording: 7
Interpretation: 7
Technical: 9