Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky was one of music's truly epochal innovators; no other composer of the 20th century exerted such a pervasive influence or dominated his art in the way that Stravinsky did during his seven-decade musical career. Aside from purely technical considerations such as rhythm and harmony, the most important hallmark of Stravinsky's style is, indeed, its changing face. Emerging from the spirit of late Russian nationalism and ending his career with a thorny, individual language steeped in 12-tone principles, Stravinsky assumed a number of aesthetic guises throughout the course of his development while always retaining a distinctive, essential identity.
Although he was the son of one of the Mariinsky Theater's principal basses and a talented amateur pianist, Stravinsky had no more musical training than that of any other Russian upper-class child. He entered law school but also began private composition and orchestration studies with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. By 1909, the orchestral works Scherzo fantastique and Fireworks had impressed Sergei Diaghilev enough for him to ask Stravinsky to orchestrate -- and subsequently compose -- ballets for his company. Stravinsky's triad of early ballets -- The Firebird (1909-1910), Petrushka (1910-1911), and most importantly, The Rite of Spring (1911-1913) -- did more to establish his reputation than any of his other works; indeed, the riot which followed the premiere of The Rite is one of the most notorious events in music history.
Stravinsky and his family spent the war years in Switzerland, returning to France in 1920. His jazz-inflected essays of the 1910s and 1920s -- notably, Ragtime (1918) and The Soldier's Tale (1918) -- gave way to one of the composer's most influential aesthetic turns. The neo-Classical tautness of works as diverse as the ballet Pulcinella (1919-1920), the Symphony of Psalms (1930), and, decades later, the opera The Rake's Progress (1948-1951) made a widespread impact and had a special influence upon the fledgling school of American composers that looked to Stravinsky as its primary model. He had begun touring as a conductor and pianist, generally performing his own works. In the 1930s, he toured the Americas and wrote several pieces fulfilling American commissions, including the Concerto in E flat, "Dumbarton Oaks."
After the deaths of his daughter, his wife, and his mother within a period of less than a year, Stravinsky emigrated to America, settling in California with his second wife in 1940. His works between 1940 and 1950 show a mixture of styles but still seem centered on Russian or French traditions. Stravinsky's cultural perspective changed after Robert Craft became his musical assistant, handling rehearsals for Stravinsky, traveling with him, and later, co-authoring his memoirs. Craft is credited with helping Stravinsky accept 12-tone composition as one of the tools of his trade. Characteristically, though, he made novel use of such principles in his own music, producing works in a highly original vein: Movements (1958-1959) for piano and orchestra, Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam (1963), and the Requiem Canticles (1965-1966) are among the most striking. Craft prepared the musicians for the exemplary series of Columbia Records LPs Stravinsky conducted through the stereo era, covering virtually all his significant works. Despite declining health in his last years, Stravinsky continued to compose until just before his death in April 1971.
© TiVo Staff /TiVo
Artistas similares
-
Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky Choral Music
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 12-06-2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Petrouchka Suite / The Firebird Suite (Studio)
Radio Luxembourg Symphony Orchestra
Clásica - Editado por Phoenix USA el 01-11-1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Perséphone
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 01-04-2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky Conducts Ballet Music
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 01-04-2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky (1951-1957)
Heinz Stanske, Maria Bergmann, Orchestra della Radio della Svizzera Italiana, SWR Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks, Igor Stravinsky
Clásica - Editado por Music and Arts Programs of America el 01-06-2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Los Grandes de la Musica Clasica - Igor Stravinski Vol. 1
ORF Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Stuttgart
Clásica - Editado por ClassicalPirosDigital el 08-06-2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ormandy In Russia Vol. 2
Clásica - Editado por Pipeline Music el 07-06-2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Los Grandes de la Musica Clasica - Igor Stravinski Vol. 2
Sinfonieorchester Des Südwestfunks, Chamber Orchestra Stuttgart, Charlotte Zelka
Clásica - Editado por ClassicalPirosDigital el 08-06-2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
American Symphony Orchestra, Leon Botstein
Clásica - Editado por American Symphony Orchestra el 17-10-2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Petrouchka
Clásica - Editado por Everest Records el 02-08-1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Apollon Musagète, Firebird
Clásica - Editado por Pipeline Music el 29-11-2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Igor Stravinsky in Moscow (Live)
Clásica - Editado por JSC Firma Melodiya el 01-01-2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jeux De Cartes / Oktett Pour Instruments A Vent / Capriccio Pour Piano Et Orchestre : Anthologie Igor Stravinsky Vol. 5
Pop - Editado por Rendez-Vous Digital el 15-09-2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Dancer's Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky
Alan Gilbert, New York Philarmonic
Clásica - Editado por New York Philharmonic el 03-09-2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra: Stravinsky & Tabakov
Clásica - Editado por Gega New el 12-07-2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Stravinsky: Fanfare for a New Theatre
Igor Stravinsky, Jonas Lindeborg, Joakim Agnas
Clásica - Editado por EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE el 16-10-2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Recent Stravinsky Conducted by the Composer
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 12-06-2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: The Firebird / Petrushka / The Rite of Spring
Clásica - Editado por Deux-Elles Limited el 04-12-2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Meet the Composer: Igor Stravinsky Conducting and Playing His Own Works
Clásica - Editado por Sony Classical el 12-06-2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Apollo & Jeu de cartes
Igor Stravinsky, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Clásica - Editado por Orfeo el 01-01-2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo