"Tamara Karsavina, the first Firebird, stood in the wings of the Paris Opera watching Igor Stravinsky, then a young man of 27, approach the orchestra pit. The director of the Ballet Russe, Serge Diaghilev, said to her: 'Mark him well. He is a man on the eve of celebrity.'
"The course of music in our century would not have been the same without the artistic genius of Diaghilev, and never was his judgment more acute than in the case of Stravinsky. Diaghilev had heard the young Russian composer's early 'Fireworks, Op. 4,' at a Siloti concert in St. Petersburg in 1909. He was so taken with the balletic possibilities of this daring and colorful piece that he gave Stravinsky a commission which led, in fairly rapid succession, to 'The Firebird,' 'Petrouchka,' and 'The Rite of Spring,' the triumvirate which projected Stravinsky into world fame before the First World War and remains the cornerstone of his popularity today. Clearly influenced by his early teacher, the great Russian master of orchestration Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky's four-minute orchestral fantasy 'Fireworks' is an ingenious tour de force, a swirling pyrotechnical display with percussion explosions sending aloft cascades of tutti rhythms and oddly placed accents. Contrasting timbres burst into splendor, and the whole is a wonderful display of purposeful confusion. Here, for the first time, was a piece with distinctly Stravinskyan characteristics
"'The Firebird' was the first major composition by Stravinsky to be performed. Earlier Diaghilev had asked the composer Liadov to write a ballet based on the Russian fairy tale of the Firebird, but the composer, habitually dilatory, delayed so long that by mutual agreement they turned the task over to Stravinsky. Fokine, the chief choreographer of Ballet Russe, supplied the scenario. The story is actually a variation and combination of several Russian fairy tales, some recorded by Alexander Pushkin, others by A. N. Afanasiev, whose versions themselves, according to Russian historians, are personal variations of the collector. As none of the recurring figures of the tales, such as Ivan Tsarevitch, Kastchei, and the Firebird, has any counterpart in Russian mythology or folklore, the adventures of these fanciful characters are left largely to the invention of the narrator. Diaghilev and his collaborators thought to select certain children's tales and endow them with a definite moral point, and develop the episodes in a sophisticated manner more in keeping with the new Russian dance.
"Stravinsky arranged the 'conte dance' in a series of set numbers connected by musical transitions—a form abandoned in Stravinsky's later work, except for the formal recitatives in 'The Rake's Progress.'
"The ballet, except for the unusual harmonic combinations, erratic rhythms, and instrumentation peculiar to Stravinsky's style, is composed in a conventional idiom, again directly influenced by Rimsky-Korsakov. The score, saved by the masterful treatment of the set numbers from being entirely conceived as 'action music,' contains suggestions of the new technique Stravinsky was to use so effectively in 'Petrouchka' and 'The Rite of Spring.' For the most part, however, the ballet is 'orchestral.' The most significant section in terms of his later revolutionary technique is 'The Infernal Dance of Kastchei and His Court.' Stravinsky seemed led into the discovery of this new idiom by his effort to distinguish—in the manner of Rimsky-Korsakov—the human and magical characters of the story. The Prince and Princesses are associated with diatonic themes, some based on actual folk tunes recorded by Rimsky-Korsakov; the music for the supernatural characters is written in an elaborated chromaticism. There was the problem, moreover, of distinguishing between the benign magic of the Firebird and the demonic of Kastchei and his Court. Maintaining his 'magic' idiom for both, Stravinsky distinguishes the two by a curious isolation of instrumental timbres in Kastchei's music, together with an arrogant use of rhythm and percussion, an exciting repetition of short intervals, and a harsh dissonance. What was in 'The Firebird' a literary experiment became an entire musical aesthetic in his later works.
"The French composers of the day were struck by the freshness with which Stravinsky had endowed both the traditional Russian technique and that of the impressionists. Claude Debussy, on the occasion of the first performance, came backstage especially to congratulate the composer. Nevertheless, even in this fairly conventional score there were elements that disturbed some listeners. Pavlova herself had refused the title role because the music was, she said, 'nonsense.' Even at so early a date in his career the musical ideas of the young composer proved disquieting.
"At its premiere, 'The Firebird' was a great success. It was to be followed shortly by the revolutionary 'Petrouchka' and the shocking 'Rite of Spring.' Those who had looked forward to a repetition in these works of the shimmering color and the melodic sweetness of 'The Firebird' were disappointed. Firebird was indeed his eve of celebrity, but it was also his farewell to musical impressionism." (Gene Bruck. From the liner notes.)
Performers: London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati
1. Fireworks
2. The Firebird: Introduction
3. The Firebird: The Enchanted Garden Of Kastchei
4. The Firebird: Appearance Of The Firebird, Pursued By Prince Ivan
5. The Firebird: Dance Of The Firebird
6. The Firebird: Capture Of The Firebird By Prince Ivan
7. The Firebird: Supplication Of The Firebird
8. The Firebird: Appearance Of The Enchanted Princesses
9. The Firebird: The Princesses' Game With The Golden Apples (Scherzo)
10. The Firebird: Sudden Appearance Of Prince Ivan
11. The Firebird: Khorovod (Round Dance) Of The Princesses
12. The Firebird: Daybreak
13. The Firebird: Magic Carillon, Appearance Of Kastchei's Monster Guardians, And Capture Of Prince Ivan
14. The Firebird: Arrival Of Kastchei The Immortal
15. The Firebird: Dialogue Of Kastchei And Prince Ivan
16. The Firebird: Intercession Of The Princesses
17. The Firebird: Appearance Of The Firebird
18. The Firebird: Dance Of Khastchei's Retinue, Enchanted By The Firebird
19. The Firebird: Infernal Dance Of All Kastchei's Subjects
20. The Firebird: Lullaby (Firebird)
21. The Firebird: Kastchei's Awakening
22. The Firebird: Kastchei's Death; Profound Darkness
23. The Firebird: Disappearance Of Kastchei's Palace And Magical Creations, Return To Life Of The Petrified Knights, General Rejoicing
24. Tango
25. Scherzo À La Russe
26. The Song Of The Nightingale: Introduction
27. The Song Of The Nightingale: Chinese March
28. The Song Of The Nightingale: Song Of The Nightingale
29. The Song Of The Nightingale: The Mechanical Nightingale's Game
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