Stravinsky toured as a concert pianist for nearly three decades, and his piano music is often prodigiously difficult, written for his unusually large hands.
Composer Biography
Stravinsky often retained exclusive public performance rights for his piano works for years, due to concerns about other interpreters' 'emotive exploitation' of his music.
Composer Biography
Igor Stravinsky had a lifelong association with the piano, from childhood works to preliminary sketches left incomplete at his death.
Composition History
The 'Concerto in D for string orchestra', also known as the Basle Concerto, was commissioned by Paul Sacher, who later established the Sacher Stiftung to house most of Stravinsky's archives.
Composition History
Stravinsky's setting of the 'Song of the Volga Boatmen' was arranged overnight and dictated to his friend Ernest Ansermet, with a red banner sketched by Picasso on the manuscript cover.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Stravinsky referred to the piano as the 'fulcrum' of his compositional discoveries, often using piano works as harbingers for larger symphonic and choral compositions.
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