There is nothing wrong, and everything right, with this approach in the later works. Without the kind of focused energy, concentrated strength, and clear intelligence Sangiorgio brings to the music, it sounds brutal, brawny, and not all that interesting. But that same approach in the earlier music makes the pieces sound quite unlike the work of a young Russian Silver Age composer and much more like the work of a mature expatriate postwar composer. And this, some would argue, is a mistake. More than that of most composers, Stravinsky's music goes through enormous style changes and the Romantic sonata he composed in Russia should sound very little like the modernist sonata he composed in Paris or the sarcastic Circus Polka he composed in Hollywood. Yet in Sangiorgio's performances, they all sound like the work of the same modernist wise guy. Cleanly recorded in 1991, first released on Collins Classics in 1993, and re-released here on Naxos in 2007, this disc should be heard by all who admire Stravinsky's music -- although they might not equally admire every performance here. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide
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