Bartok: Piano Works/Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

I wanted to re-explore some other works by mid-career Bartok. 
This album represents one of the very few forays of Murray Perahia in 20th century repertoire. It could have potentially been a great disc but the spoiler here is the close-miked recording and an inadequate remastering of the original tapes (via Sony's DSD system, whatever that may be).The earliest recordings (the Sonata (1926)) date from 1973, shortly after Perahia's first prize at the Leeds piano competition. They sound dated, boxy and clangy at the same time. It doesn't get better as the program progresses with the simpler Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs (1920). The cheap, metallic sheen over the piano sound distracts and is curiously at odds with the rustic ambience of the music. Is that what keeps me from being convinced by what sounds otherwise as quite exceptional piano playing? Recordingwise the short and pugnacious Suite (1916) fares slightly better. One is reminded immediately of the Wooden Prince's sound world. Out of Doors is spectacular in a way. The Drums and Pipes sound like Blitzkrieg. The Chase is equally brutal. In the Barcarolla and the Night's Music Perahia's control and sense of colour is in evidence. But again, the muffled quality of the sound on the one hand, and the metallic, wobbly harmonics significantly compromise the listening pleasure. The CD is complemented with a Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion where Perahia is joined by Georg Solti on another keyboard. I will keep that for later.

After the Bartok I felt like listening to a good old LP. I reverted to the Stravinsky album I discovered a few months ago: Silvestri conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra in the Symphony in Three Movements. What a relief! With the listening seat positioned in an equilateral triangle with the speakers, one has a wonderful sense of space with the orchestra occupying the full width of the room and instrument groups nicely terraced towards the back. And the liveliness and vivacity of the sound! This is so much better than all of this multi-channel and surround bogus. Gosh, what a hoax. A stellar recording and performance this is. Muscular in the opening movement and surprisingly playful and tender in the central, classicist slow movement. The finale mixes a little of both. I used to prefer the Symphony in C over the one in three movements, but I have the impression that this is changing.