Who actually listens to Stravinsky?

[Maciek]

I have actually been listening to The Firebird every Sunday, or at least every other Sunday, for 3 or 4 months now. My daughter is absolutely crazy about a DVD we have of the ballet, so we've made watching it a sort of Sunday ritual.

(So that means 4 people listening to the whole ballet and watching it on a regular basis. )

[karlhenning]

Why are you using quotes?

"What was that part in the middle again?"

[Norbeone]

I've never been a big Stravinsky fan. Though the "hits" are fun sometimes.

I used to think the hits were the only true Stravinsky worth listening to, but I've since discovered how blatantly wrong I was. Stravinsky, throught his entire career, kept writing some immensely great and important works, and this is something that is sadly not appreciated by a great many people.

[The new erato]

I used to think the hits were the only true Stravinsky worth listening to, but I've since discovered how blatantly wrong I was. Stravinsky, throught his entire career, kept writing some immensely great and important works, and this is something that is sadly not appreciated by a great many people.

I seldom listen to his "hits" anymore.  His true masterpieces lies elsewhere, this composer has so much to offer in areas most of the public is largely unaware of.

[drogulus]

     So far I have listened to the hits, mainly, but not just the big 3 ballets. It wouldn't surprise me if Stravinsky went through a period of relative neglect compared to his exalted status in the mid 20th century (as my "Golden Age"-dominated recording collection shows). His status as the revolutionary who could attract many concert-goers who don't like revolutionaries puts him in a special place, so I think he will be back.

     

[Herman]

Well it's not completely inarguable that Shostakovich' rise in the public view the last twenty years or so has done some harm to composers like Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Compared to Shostakovich these composers seem to wear their hearts less on their sleeve. That's why the most frequently heard Stravinsky works are from the early, Russian period: these works sound more visceral.

However, if you want to hear Stravinsky live on a regular basis, beautiful works like Apollo Musagete, Agon, Violin Concerto and many others, it really helps if you share Stravinsky's love for the neo-classical ballet, 'cause that's where these works are being played all the time.

[karlhenning]

That is not "classical" music...   

That's another discussion;  though one notes that you cast classical in scare-quotes . . . which partly underscores the point.

[karlhenning]

However, if you want to hear Stravinsky live on a regular basis, beautiful works like Apollo Musagete, Agon, Violin Concerto and many others, it really helps if you share Stravinsky's love for the neo-classical ballet, 'cause that's where these works are being played all the time.

Curious that this is the case even for the Violin Concerto, which (I thought, and notwithstanding the fact that Balanchine adopted it with excellent results on stage) Stravinsky wrote for a concert work.

[Dundonnell]

You can't beat those savage, pounding chords which open the Symphony in Three Movements First heard it when it was used as the introductory music for a serial on steam radio back in the early 1960s-put the fear of death into me

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

You can't beat those savage, punding chords which open the Symphony in Three Movements

Tremendous piece to hear live. I heard it once in Chicago, Boulez conducting, and I was sitting in my favorite spot behind the orchestra...the opening sounded like a bomb going off beneath my feet.

[karlhenning]

Tremendous piece to hear live.

Aye, it is.  Heard it played by the Clevelanders at the Blossom Music Center.

[Catison]

Tremendous piece to hear live. I heard it once in Chicago, Boulez conducting, and I was sitting in my favorite spot behind the orchestra...the opening sounded like a bomb going off beneath my feet.

Why is behind the orchestra your favorite spot?

[Herman]

Curious that this is the case even for the Violin Concerto, which (I thought, and notwithstanding the fact that Balanchine adopted it with excellent results on stage) Stravinsky wrote for a concert work.

Well, hasn't there been a terrible attrition in the concerto repertoire the past 25 years? Even in a sophisticated place like Amsterdam piano soloists rarely stray from the Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Brahms warhorses, and you can hear the Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven violin concerto pretty much on a weekly basis. All those other equally (or often even more) beautiful concertos by Stravinsky, Walton and countless others are rarely programmed.

Some time ago the very much hyped violinista Janine Jansen performed the Britten concerto, and much of the promo copy seemed geared to help people getting used to her playing something as unusual as that.

[Hector]

Me, actually.

I have downloaded Rattle's recording of the three symphonies to iPod where they will join Nagano's 'Persephone.'

However, although the Symphony in 3 movements and of Psalms are a couple of my favourites I do struggle to like the Symphony in C.

[karlhenning]

The Symphony in C hasn't captured me the way that the Symphony in Three Movements or the Symphony in Psalms has (or the way much else in Stravinsky's oeuvre has) . . . but I'm going to try it again.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Why is behind the orchestra your favorite spot?

First, for the visual advantages. I can see the conductor from the front and observe the interplay of the orchestra more easily. Second, for the visceral impact and closeness of the sound.

The Symphony in C hasn't captured me the way that the Symphony in Three Movements or the Symphony in Psalms has

That was true for me for a while, until I sat down and tried to make sense of it. I think my initial problem is that it's a classical-style symphony which doesn't necessarily behave like one - for instance, that drawn-out, inconclusive ending (actually the whole finale is kind of confusing and episodic on first listen).

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Well, hasn't there been a terrible attrition in the concerto repertoire the past 25 years?

And before the last 25 years - was the situation much better than it is now? My impression (nothing but an impression, no evidence, sorry) is that this is the way things have been for quite a long time.

[Herman]

And before the last 25 years - was the situation much better than it is now?

I think the repertoire was not as slim as it is now.

[karlhenning]

Peter Serkin playing the premiere of Wuorinen's Fourth Concerto did feel like an unusual event, and not for the mere fact of its being a premiere . . . .

[Herman]

Peter Serkin playing the premiere of Wuorinen's Fourth Concerto did feel like an unusual event, and not for the mere fact of its being a premiere . . . .

Of course that's an unusual event. I wasn't even talking about new, contemporary music (most of which gets a couple of performances and then it's over), but concertos that should be considered as 20th century classics.