Stravinsky - The Firebird | Michael Tilson Thomas | New World Symphony (2018)

Video Description

Join MTT and the NWS Fellows for an evening of fantasy and magic. Igor Stravinsky, who always prioritized creative freedom over any controversy left in its wake, conjured an explosive score for The Firebird, one as enchanting as the folklore it paints. MTT leads a rare performance of the full ballet score, wickedly challenging and colorful from its triumphant hymns to the primal Infernal Dance. As of 1902, Igor Stravinsky was a young law student whose musical pursuits amounted to some piano lessons and a year of private theory training. As he began to think more seriously of a life in music, he arranged to show some of his scores to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the leading teacher and tastemaker in Saint Petersburg. Rimsky-Korsakov accepted Stravinsky as a private student, steering him away from the conservatory, where the untrained 20-year-old would have stuck out. Stravinsky flourished under Rimsky-Korsakov, who was as much a second father as a teacher. With two short orchestral works from 1908, Scherzo fantastique and Fireworks, Stravinsky established himself as a worthy heir to his mentor’s legendary orchestral technique. Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908, but another helping hand soon filled the void: Serge Diaghilev, a Russian impresario based in Paris who had assembled a new ballet company, the Ballets Russes. On the strength of Scherzo fantastique and Fireworks, Diaghilev asked Stravinsky to supply a few orchestrations for Les Sylphides, a 1909 ballet based on Chopin’s music. Stravinsky’s breakthrough came later that year, when Diaghilev needed a composer for a major new ballet derived from a Russian folk-tale, The Firebird. The initial choice had been Anatoly Liadov; for reasons that are not entirely clear (probably Liadov’s slow pace, or his notorious indolence), Diaghilev replaced Liadov with Stravinsky. By the time the commission was confirmed in December, a group of Diaghilev collaborators, led by choreographer Michel Fokine, had already scripted a scenario for Prince Ivan’s adventures with the villainous Kastchei, his 13 princesses and the mythical Firebird. Stravinsky wrote most of the music in Saint Petersburg during the spring of 1910. He then traveled to Paris for the June 25 premiere, the first performance of his music outside of Russia. The resounding success of The Firebird launched Stravinsky’s international career and paved the way for his next Ballets Russes commissions, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. But The Firebird was, just as significantly, a point of closure for Stravinsky. In no other music is his link to Rimsky-Korsakov so palpable, especially in the handling of folk themes and in the effervescent clarity of an outsized orchestra. -© Aaron Grad 2018. Originally performed February 17, 2018. #firebird #stravinsky #orchestra #ballet Subscribe for weekly instructional videos, performances and incredible orchestral content: https://www.youtube.com/@newworldsymphony Visit https://media.nws.edu to sign up for our FREE live streaming platform NWS Inside. Follow New World Symphony: Instagram: @nwsymphony TikTok: New-World-Symphony Facebook: NewWorldSymphony X: @nwsymphony Website: https://nws.edu Powered by Knight Foundation