Stravinsky - Symphony in Three Movements/Petrassi - Recréation Concertante (III. Concerto) per Orchestra

Today I just felt like listening to some vinyl and I picked from my collection of cleaned but unplayed LPs a 1961 recording of Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements (1945) by the Philharmonia Orchestra led by Constantin Silvestri. A very happy choice for several reasons. First, it's a superb performance that has been captured in a very authoritative and transparent sound by the EMI engineers. Second, because it's such a wonderful pendant to Petrassi's Third Concerto (1952-53) that I listened immediately afterwards. I had been cursorely listening to the Recréation Concertante over the last few days and found it a remarkable but even more enigmatic work than the Secondo Concerto. It starts with a very energetic Allegro sostenuto ed energico that leads over to an elusive moderato that connects back to a fast movement (Vigoros e ritmico). The scoring becomes progressively more diaphanous, even more so as we move into a most remarkable Adagio moderato - a fantastic episode of great, mysterious beauty - to conclude with a laconic and light Allegretto sereno. Although Petrassi starts to rely here on twelve tone material, there is nothing disorientating about the music. There is a definite sense of harmonic direction. Apparently, the interval of a third is the most determinant element of the material used in constructing the Concerto (PP. Petazzi in the liner notes). Maybe this is a case of metatonal music? I feel there is an obvious kinship with the Stravinsky symphony in the compactness of structure, the granitic energy of the opening movement, the concertante character of much of the scoring (with piano and harp particularly prominent in the Stravinsky), the deceptive mildness of some movements (I found references to Rossini in relation to both works) and likely also the minor-major tensions in both compositions.