Work of the Week - Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird

Igor Stravinsky's classic ballet The Firebird works its magic in the concert hall just as much as in a theatre (and there are five different versions adapted for both the stage and concert hall).  This week is typical for Stravinsky's masterpiece with ballet performances from Wednesday to Friday in Tel Aviv, Israel directed by Christoph von Dohnányi, a German performance of the 1945 ballet version will take place in the Saxon Hoyerswerda on Wednesday and finally on Sunday the 1919 orchestral version will be performed in Nara, Japan.

Based on two Russian folk characters, "The Good Firebird" and "The Immortal Emperor Kastschej", The Firebird was premiered as a ballet by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in Paris on June 25 1910 conducted by Gabriel Pierné. It was the first of their productions with music specially composed for them. Originally the music was to have been written by Russian composer Anatol Liadov (1855-1914); but when he was slow in starting work, Diaghilev transferred the commission to the 28-year old Stravinsky. The ballet has historic significance not only as Stravinsky's 'breakthrough piece' ("Mark him well", said Diaghilev to Tamara Karsavina, who was dancing the title role: "He is a man on the eve of celebrity..."), but also as the beginning of the collaboration between Diaghilev and Stravinsky that would also produce Petrushka and The Rite of Spring.
Two years later Stravinsky wrote the first orchestral version and in 1919 he rescored a shorter version with reduced instrumentation.  This reduced version was later adapted into a second ballet version in 1945 and finally re-orchestrated into a second orchestral version.

• Igor Stravinsky - Profile

(03/18/2008)