CCXXV. STRAVINSKY, Igor: The Firebird

CCXXV. STRAVINSKY, Igor (1882-1971)

The Firebird (1910)
Vienna Philharmonic
Valery Gergiev, cond.
(47:13)

In 1909, the 27-year-old composer premiered two new compositions in St. Petersburg: Scherzo fantastique and Feu d'artifice.

Sitting in the audience that night was Sergei Diaghliev who was preparing his new Ballet Russes in Paris.

After trying to commission some older composers -- who either refused or didn't come through -- he commissioned the young Stravinsky to write a ballet on a subject combining the mythical Firebird with the Russian tale of Koschei the Deathless, possibly inspired by a verse by Yakov Polonsky A Winter's Journey (1844):

And in my dreams I see myself on a wolf's back
Riding along a forest path
To do battle with a sorcerer-tsar (Koschei)
In that land where a princess sits under lock and key,
Pining behind massive walls.
There gardens surround a palace all of glass;
There Firebirds sing by night
And peck at golden fruit

Stravinsky worked closely with Michael Fokine, the choreographer, and the ballet was a smash hit, catapulting the young composer to international fame. Two more Diaghliev commissions followed: Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913) [see Post VII] ...

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The music opens with low grumbling in the lowest strings in the darkest of dark keys -- A-Flat Minor (seven flats!):

Check out the gliss/harmonic string effects before he brings the melody up in the flutes:

Dance of the Firebird

You can feel the dancing here.

Capture of the Firebird by Prince Ivan

Again, Stravinsky -- using simple whole-tone movements and a constant flurry of sweeping 16th-notes in tight-intervals -- captures the capture beautifully ...

The Princesses' Game with the Golden Apples

A theme which will Stravinsky will greatly enlarge emerges from the clarinet:

Khorovod (Round Dance) of the Princesses

This simple stepwise theme arises from the musical mist and is one of the most beautiful of all. It will be recapitulated later in full flowering ...

Infernal Dance of All Kastchei's Subjects

We've heard this theme briefly before. Now Stravinsky pounds it out with insistent syncopation:

The Firebird's Lullaby

A plaintive bassoon melody in E-Flat Minor:

Disappearance of Kastchei's Palace and Magical Creatures, Return to Life of the Petrified Knights, General Rejoicing

And finally, this simple melody in the Horn, which Stravinsky repeats in gigantic, lushly orchestrated sweeping phrases:

and finally triumphant brass shout out this final theme in 7/4 (a dimunition of the above), repeated again, richly orchestrated, ending with two bars of allargando (broadening, become progressively slower):

until the final eight bars bring down the curtain: