Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird, Symphony in C Major, The Wedding, L'Histoire du soldat, Three Pieces & Concertino for String Quartet, Shakespeare Songs

Featuring

Christoph von Dohnányi
Václav Neumann
Zdeněk Košler
Brigita Šulcová
Anna Barová
Miroslav Švejda

Dalibor Jedlička
Harold Wright
Sherman Abbot Walt
Armando Ghitalla
William Gibson
Joseph Silverstein
Henry Portnoi
Everett Joseph Firth
Peter Oundjian
Kikuei Ikeda
Kazuhide Isomura
Sadao Harada
Milada Boubliková
Josef Mokroš
Milan Kostohryz
Pavel Janda
Czech Philharmonic
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Prague Radio Chorus
Boston Symphony Chamber Players
Tokyo String Quartet
Musica Nova Pragensis
Igor Stravinsky

Did you know?

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Composition History

Stravinsky's Symphony in C was written during a period of 'rupture' and 'uprooting' in his life, though some musicologists debate the direct influence of these events on the work itself.

Compositional Technique

The Three Songs from William Shakespeare represent Stravinsky's first clearly twelve-tone compositions, with each song exploring a different tone-row.

Compositional Technique

The 'orchestra' for The Soldier's Tale imitates the bands used by itinerant circuses, notably replacing the bassoon with an alto saxophone.

Composition History

Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird was commissioned by Diaghilev, and its success paradoxically became an obstacle to the reception of his later, more revolutionary works like The Rite of Spring and Les Noces.

Compositional Technique

In The Firebird, Stravinsky began to develop his own characteristic orchestral effects, such as trombone glissandi and natural harmonics in the strings, moving away from Rimsky-Korsakov's eclectic aesthetic.

Composition History

Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale was inspired by one of Afanasiev's tales about a soldier and the Devil, where the soldier tricks the Devil into drinking too much vodka and eating buckshot disguised as caviar.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Stravinsky himself compiled the Russian text for Les Noces (The Wedding) using Kirievsky's anthology of wedding songs, some of which included words by Pushkin.