Topic: Chez Stravinsky

[scottscheule]

           

It seems Sony 22 CD Stravinsky Edition is finally due for reappearance. So far only jpc is listing it for pre-order and the price looks right.

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/hnum/7985870/rk/classic/rsk/novelties

What a funny little walrus of a man.

[karlhenning]

Some called him Bilbo . . . .

[scottscheule]

Some called him Bilbo . . . .

That certainly has a nice ring to it.

*Groan*  Karl, you bring out the worst in me.

[scottscheule]

Also, that unfortunately reminds me of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC73PHdQX04

[karlhenning]

Closing in on the end of Stephen Walsh's volume I, A Creative Spring.  A terrific read, and richly informative.  For but one ancillary thing, I now have a much better picture of many figures in Stravinsky's career, who hitherto had only been shadowy names:  Ramuz, Winterthur, and the princesse de Polignac, to mention but three.

[karlhenning]

I’ve just read your review of the Ziloti concert in which Schoenberg conducted his Pelleas. I saw from what you wrote that you really like and understand the essence of Schoenberg—that truly outstanding artist of our time, and I therefore think that you would not be uninterested to know his latest work, wherein is most intensively displayed the whole extraordinary stamp of his creative genius.  I’m talking about his [Pierrot Lunaire], which I recently heard in Berlin.  Here’s something you “Contemporaries” ought to play! (Stravinsky writing to Karatygin, 26 Dec 1912)

[karlhenning]

At the theatre, Stravinsky was rehearsing Les noces.  “I sat in the stalls with my score at the first rehearsal,” Monteux later recalled, “following every note.  I had studied it thoroughly and I at once noticed that no one came in on time, chorus or soloists (Stravinsky at that time was not the conductor that he is today, having little or no experience with ensembles).  The performance went through, and was a huge success with the Paris public, who always adored Stravinsky.”  Monteux persuaded Diaghilev to give him a rehearsal of his own.  “I worked with the chorus, who knew their parts perfectly;  it suifficed to give them their cues at the right places.  As for the soloists, they sang in any key and anywhere.  They had to learn their parts.  A few days after that rehearsal I had my first performance of Les noces.  It went perfectly and I was satisfied, but it had not the success as when conducted by the composer.  C’est la vie! Ha ha!”

[karlhenning]

“Why do you change the rhythm so often?” somebody asks the composer.  “Often?”—he is astonished.  “I change it only when it is absolutely necessary.”

[Drasko]

No context, just liked the picture and thought of posting it here



Igor Strawinsky, Eduard Dülberg (Ausstattung) und Otto Klemperer im Vorfeld der Premiere von Oedipus Rex an der Krolloper am 25. Februar 1928

[Brewski]

That is a really cool photo, thanks for posting it. 

--Bruce

[Steve]

Closing in on the end of Stephen Walsh's volume I, A Creative Spring.  A terrific read, and richly informative.  For but one ancillary thing, I now have a much better picture of many figures in Stravinsky's career, who hitherto had only been shadowy names:  Ramuz, Winterthur, and the princesse de Polignac, to mention but three.

I'm about to begin William James', The Varieties of Religious Experience. As soon as I'm finished I'd love another classical themed text. So an easy recommendation then, Karl?

[karlhenning]

I'm about to begin William James', The Varieties of Religious Experience. As soon as I'm finished I'd love another classical themed text. So an easy recommendation then, Karl?

Yes, both volumes I (A Creative Spring) and II (The Second Exile).  Just prepare yourself to want to hear all the Stravinsky you've never yet heard 

[not edward]

Yes, both volumes I (A Creative Spring) and II (The Second Exile).  Just prepare yourself to want to hear all the Stravinsky you've never yet heard 

What do you think of the Lied ohne name for two bassoons and the Fanfare for a New Theatre for two trumpets?

[karlhenning]

Well, all right, I did find the bassoon duet resistable . . . I was thinking more on the lines of Berceuses de chat and Pribaoutki  

[not edward]

Well, all right, I did find the bassoon duet resistable . . . I was thinking more on the lines of Berceuses de chat and Pribaoutki  

Those are certainly perfect examples of the dictum that a work can be short without being minor! (I'd toss the two Bal'mont settings and the Three Japanese Lyrics into the same category as them.)

[Greta]

I finally heard The Fairy's Kiss!  The recent Houston recording is on the radio, very good, a totally delightful work. I was kind of confused what composer I was listening to!

I'm not sure if it is one movement or several, but I got in at the jolly bouncy horns with the odd meters, which hooked me. And later the extended flute solo and chamber winds are excellent, w/ the harp and cello and clarinet, I always loved how Stravinsky wrote for winds. Gorgeous! Nice fairytale atmosphere, even Tchaikovskian, albeit slightly fractured. Prokofiev came to mind too for some reason. Only a bare trace of Le Sacre Stravinsky in the brass hits.

I'm always amazed at how much he experimented with radically different styles of writing. Still so many of his works I haven't heard, and none of his serial period I think. Les Noces sounds really interesting, which version is the one to go for? It seems there are several different ones, and a full orchestration, and a new one by Steven Stucky is premiering in LA too next year.

[karlhenning]

How wonderful that you are at last acquainted with the charming Fairy's Kiss, Greta! On one level, it's a powerful statement, isn't it, of the affection and respect Igor Fyodorovich had for Pyotr Ilyich?

[Brewski]

I finally heard The Fairy's Kiss!  The recent Houston recording is on the radio, very good, a totally delightful work. I was kind of confused what composer I was listening to!

I'm not sure if it is one movement or several, but I got in at the jolly bouncy horns with the odd meters, which hooked me. And later the extended flute solo and chamber winds are excellent, w/ the harp and cello and clarinet, I always loved how Stravinsky wrote for winds. Gorgeous! Nice fairytale atmosphere, even Tchaikovskian, albeit slightly fractured. Prokofiev came to mind too for some reason. Only a bare trace of Le Sacre Stravinsky in the brass hits.

I'm always amazed at how much he experimented with radically different styles of writing. Still so many of his works I haven't heard, and none of his serial period I think. Les Noces sounds really interesting, which version is the one to go for? It seems there are several different ones, and a full orchestration, and a new one by Steven Stucky is premiering in LA too next year.

Great piece, isn't it!    One of my favorites by Stravinsky, for sure. 

For Les Noces, I have the Bernstein recording below and like it very much.  But I haven't heard some notable others, such as the one by Robert Craft.  Doing a quick search, I notice there is also a DVD of the Royal Ballet (Covent Garden) if you want to see it danced, along with The Firebird.



--Bruce

[Lethevich]

Finally found a big picture of it

[karlhenning]

He looks like they roughed him up a bit on Scollay Square first . . . normally, he is so faultlessly soigné.