Composer · Modernist
Igor Stravinsky
1882–1971 · Russian
Igor Stravinsky was, more than any other figure, the composer who reinvented twentieth-century music, and he did it three times. Born near St. Petersburg in 1882, he came to international fame in his late twenties through his collaborations with the impresario Sergei Diaghilev, whose Ballets Russes commissioned the three early scores (The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring) that made Stravinsky perhaps the most talked-about composer alive. The 1913 Paris premiere of The Rite of Spring provoked a near-riot and changed the course of music history.
Then, almost as soon as he had perfected the explosive, primitivist style of his early ballets, Stravinsky abandoned it. From 1920 onward he spent some three decades writing music in what came to be called his “neoclassical” period: works of cool elegance, reduced forces, and sly references to the music of the past. After the Second World War, he reinvented himself yet again, embracing the rigorous serial techniques pioneered by Arnold Schoenberg and his school. Few composers have demonstrated such restless, lifelong curiosity.
Works
- “L’Oiseau de feu” (The Firebird), Ballet Music (complete) 2
- “Pulcinella,“ Suite (1949 revised version) 1
- Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss (rev. 1949) 1
- Four Norwegian Moods 1
- Jeu de cartes 1
- Suite from ‘The Firebird’ (1919) 2
- Symphony in Three Movements 1
- Tango 1
- The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps) 2
Performed at
Upcoming
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Iván Fischer: Stravinsky and Weill’s Silbersee Stravinsky · Weill
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Faun, Asylum, and a Sacrifice Debussy · Adès · Stravinsky
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The Rite of Spring in the Gashouder, with Abel Selaocoe Selaocoe · Stravinsky
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Noseda Conducts Schnittke’s First Cello Concerto and the Complete Firebird Schnittke · Stravinsky
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Season Finale at the Waldbühne with Daniel Harding and Augustin Hadelich Strauss II · Ravel · Stravinsky · Strauss · Sarasate
Past guides
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Cho’s Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky’s War Symphony Tchaikovsky · Stravinsky · Strauss
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A Game of Thrones: New Music Meets the Firebird Norman · Stravinsky
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Gabetta’s Martinů, and Ravel’s Daphnis Dvorak · Martinů · Stravinsky · Ravel
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Looking Back to Move Forward: Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven Stravinsky · Tchaikovsky · Beethoven
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Noseda: Stravinsky, Chopin and Borodin’s Second Stravinsky · Chopin · Borodin
Sources 4
- Igor Stravinsky, Wikipedia
- Igor Stravinsky, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Igor Stravinsky: L’Oiseau de feu (programme notes), Berliner Philharmoniker
- The Firebird, Wikipedia