Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps / Jeu De Cartes

Description

Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971) The Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps) Jeu de cartes (Card Game) (Ballet in Three Deals)Igor Stravinsky was the son of a distinguished bass soloist atthe Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, creator of important roles in new operas byTchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was born, the third of four sons, at Oranienbaum onthe Gulf of Finland in the summer of 1882. In childhood his ability in music did not seemexceptional, but he was able to study music privately with Rimsky-Korsakov, who became aparticularly important influence after the death of the composer's imperious father in1902. He completed a degree in law in 1905, married in the following year and increasinglydevoted himself to music. His first significant success came when the impresario Dyagilev,a distant relative on his mother's side of the family, commissioned from him the balletThe Firebird, first performed in Paris in 1910. This was followed by the very Russian Petrushka in 1911 for the Dyagilev Ballets russes, with which he was now closelyassociated, leading in 1913 to the notorious first performance of The Rite of Spring,first staged, like the preceding ballets, in Paris. Although collaboration with Dyagilevwas limited during the war, when Stravinsky lived principally in Switzerland, it wasresumed with the ballet >Pulcinella, based onmusic attributed to Pergolesi, and marking Stravinsky's association with neo-classicism.The end of the association with Dyagilev was marked by what the impresario considered amacabre present, the Cocteau collaboration Oedipus Rex. Stravinsky has been compared to his near contemporary Picasso,the painter who provided decor for Pulcinella andwho through a long career was to show mastery of a number of contrasting styles.Stravinsky's earlier music was essentially Russian in inspiration, followed by a style ofcomposition derived largely from the 18th century, interspersed with musical excursions inother directions. His so-called neo-classicism coincided with the beginning of a careerthat was now international. The initial enthusiasm for the Russian revolution of 1917 thathad led even Dyagilev to replace crown and sceptre in TheFirebird with a red flag, was soon succeeded by distaste for the new regime andthe decision not to return to Russia.In 1939, with war imminent in Europe, Stravinsky moved to theUnited States, where he had already enjoyed considerable success. The death of his firstwife allowed him to marry a woman with whom he had enjoyed a long earlier association andthe couple settled in Hollywood, where the climate seemed congenial. Income from hiscompositions was at last safeguarded by his association with Boosey and Hawkes in 1945,the year of his naturalisation as an American citizen. The year 1951 saw the completionand first performance of the English opera The Rake's Progress, based on Hogarthengravings with a libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, a work that came at thefinal height of the composer's neo