Symphony in C

It came as a surprise when Igor Stravinsky, who had avoided the symphonic genre for decades after his youthful Opus 1, suddenly produced a symphonic work at the age of almost 60. His previous larger-scale compositions had almost exclusively been music theatre works. From this aspect, his career displays similarities with those of Bartók, Hindemith and Milhaud. In the Symphonie en ut, Stravinsky largely avoided Romanticism, tending more towards a transparent texture as in chamber music. The symphony is therefore ideal in programmes coupled with works by Joseph Haydn, for whom Stravinsky had great admiration.