Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943406021
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: STRAVINSKY
Description
Igor Stravinsky(1882-1971)The Rite of Spring (Lesacre du printemps)The Firebird (L'oiseaude feu) (Suite No. 2, 1919)Igor Stravinsky was the son of a distinguished bass soloist at theMariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, creator of important r??les in new operas byTchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was born, the third of four sons, atOranienbaum on the Gulf of Finland in the summer of 1882. In childhood hisability in music did not seem exceptional, but he was able to study musicprivately with Rimsky-Korsakov, who became a particularly important influenceafter the death of the composer's imperious father in 1902. He completed adegree in law in 1905, married in the following year and increasingly devotedhimself to music. His first significant success came when the impresarioDyagilev, a distant relative on his mother's side of the family, commissionedfrom him the ballet The Firebird, first performed in Paris in 1910. Thiswas followed by the very Russian Petrushka in 1911 for the DyagilevBallets Russes, with which he was now closely associated, leading in 1913 tothe notorious first performance of The Rite of Spring, first staged,like the preceding ballets, in Paris. Although collaboration with Dyagilev waslimited during the war, when Stravinsky lived principally in Switzerland, itwas resumed with the ballet Pulcinella, based on music attributed toPergolesi, and marking Stravinsky's association with neo-classicism. The end ofthe 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, thepainter who provided decor for Pulcinella and who through along career was toshow mastery of a number of contrasting styles. Stravinsky's earlier music wasessentially Russian in inspiration, followed by a style of composition derivedlargely from the eighteenth century, interspersed with musical excursions inother directions. His so-called neo-classicism coincided with the beginning ofa career that was now international. The initial enthusiasm for the Russianrevolution of 1917 that had led even Dyagilev to replace crown and sceptre inThe Firebird with a red flag, was soon succeeded by distaste for the newregime and the decision not to return to Russia.In 1939, with war imminent in Europe, Stravinsky moved to the UnitedStates, where he had already enjoyed considerable success. The death of hisfirst wife allowed him to marry a woman with whom he had enjoyed a long earlierassociation and the couple settled in Hollywood, where the climate seemedcongenial. Income from his compositions was at last safeguarded by hisassociation with Boosey and Hawkes in 1945, the year of his naturalisation asan American citizen. The year 1951 saw the completion and first performance ofthe English opera The Rake's Progress, based on Hogarth engravings witha libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, a work that came at the finalheight of the composer's neo-classic
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yang Zheng; Xinxin Song; ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra; Gottfried Rabl
Spectrum Concerts Berlin
Robert Trent
