Who actually listens to Stravinsky?

[The new erato]

Thanks. Most interesting!

[karlhenning]

Walsh showed the discretion (perhaps partly driven by that fear of litigation) to choose to write a book about Stravinsky, rather than a book that put Craft at the center.'

The key there, I think, is as simple as the fact that the book is about Stravinsky;  that the literature needs good biography of Stravinsky.  Leave it to Time to see whether there is any need for a book about Craft.

[Egebedieff]

Leave it to Time to see whether there is any need for a book about Craft.

The low demand for the several that Craft has written [about himself] may be an indication. I am amused that one is so aptly titled "An Improbable Life."'

[karlhenning]

The "if you build it they will come" theory of literature.

[Monsieur Croche]

!bump!

Stravinsky is noted in all the scholarly tomes of music history as "The Bach of the 20th Century."  (That regard is for the entire body of his work, not just the first three ballets.)  That is no little thing in the measure of esteem he is held in -- as compared to the esteem given other great composers.

Maybe a poll here would show how how much of Stravinsky's oeuvre with which the members are well-familiar.  I would not be surprised to find that more than just a few members here know of, and occasionally listen to, any number of Stravinsky works other than the first three ballets, lol.

I've found very little not to like throughout his entire oeuvre, (so much of it, imo, masterpieces, both small and large) and do listen to his works -- from throughout his career -- with some regularity.

Perhaps like Bach, he will fall into relative obscurity for eighty years, unknown to the general public but constantly well-known to all musicians.

If anything, his neoclassical scores and late period serial works are presented more often than they use to be.  The Symphony of Psalms is often performed, Oedipus Rex gets concert presentations often enough, as well as the Symphony in C;  The Rake's Progress is regularly performed in opera houses throughout the world. The violin concerto is more widely performed now than ever before.

I don't think 'he will go away,' either in the concert hall or later music performances, and his 'place' there, and in music history, is pretty well set.

There is this true and cynical fact:  not long ago, performances, new recordings, air play of first Ravel then Debussy, started coming along with a regularity and frequency unprecedented in the immediately preceding years.  The works had entered public domain = no more performance royalty fees.  This is a truly basic "Do the math" proposition to figure out what went on there.

Don't base popularity solely on current programming, then.  It would be more than a little mistake to do so.  (As already stated, more, and a variety of his music, is what is now happening on concert programs, not less.)  Newer recorded performances and Record sales in general might better show more of the how much and what of Stravinsky is still 'consumed.' 

Concerto in D for string orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/v/YmS0fUASrW8
https://www.youtube.com/v/p6Yq3B5Nd_E

As the music of the earlier 20th century composers enters the realm of public domain, that is when it will start popping up all over the place.


Best regards.

[Scion7]

Well, whenever they get the recently re-discovered work of his corrected and published, then performed, things should definitely be given a shot in the ol' arm.

[Karl Henning]

This ol' thread may have fallen into disuse, simply because a reasonable sub-population of GMGers do, in fact, listen . . . two of them, not presently active:  Ray (Chamber Nut) and John (Mirror Image).

Although my ears are presently in a mild Stravinsky drought    his music was an early and an enduring influence on my composition.  Even when not listening to his work, I think about it all the time . . . I've been listening to Prokofiev's Le pas d'acier, and although in (I think) the liner notes to the Jurowski CD Taruskin is referred to as saying that it borrows from Le sacre, I've been inclined to contest that, I just hear too much in the Prokofiev which is indeed characteristic of himself.

[Heck148]

A related question, then, is: whose stocks are on the rise (among classical composers)?

Corigliano?? his works are being recorded, performed...

[Karl Henning]

https://www.youtube.com/v/YmS0fUASrW8
https://www.youtube.com/v/p6Yq3B5Nd_E

A great many scores by Игорь Фëдорович won me over immediately.  But the Concerto in D is a piece (another is The Rake's Progress) which I appreciated only later.

[ritter]

A great many scores by Игорь Фëдорович won me over immediately.  But the Concerto in D is a piece (another is The Rake's Progress) which I appreciated only later.

Interesting comment. After more than35 years of admiring Igor Feodorvich's work (he ranks very, very high in my own personal pantheon of composers), I still really haven't learned to appreciate either one of the two pieces you mention in your post, Karl. And, suprisingly, my lack of apprecaition for the Rake only increased after seeing the opera live (conducted by the late Christopher Hogwood, no less). I've almost given up on these pieces, I must confess...

[San Antone]

I prefer his other Concerto in D Major, for violin and orchestra.

[bhodges]

Even though the original post was 8 years ago, I guess I missed it then. I certainly listen to Stravinsky: he is on my short list of greatest of the 20th century, and I try to hear his major works (e.g., the ballets) at least once or twice a year, just to be reminded of their brilliance.

Looking forward to hearing Dudamel and the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar do a couple of them in a few weeks.

PS, that Threni recording going around looks great. Adding it to the (impossibly large) to-hear pile.

--Bruce

[Cato]

. . . I've been listening to Prokofiev's Le pas d'acier, and although in (I think) the liner notes to the Jurowski CD Taruskin is referred to as saying that it borrows from Le sacre, I've been inclined to contest that, I just hear too much in the Prokofiev which is indeed characteristic of himself.

Yes, I have read that same claim elsewhere, which seems to be a cliche' by now.  One might make that comment in reference to Seven, They Are Seven, although also with difficulty.

One could change the title here to "Who Actually Listens To Late Stravinsky?"  I am old enough to recall the excitement - and the controversy - in the 1960's whenever a new Stravinsky work came out.  Requiem Canticles was particularly significant: and if one cannot hear the old Stravinsky of Le Sacre and Les Noces then one should pay closer attention!  0:)

Complaints about the static nature of the work, claims that the work (and others from the same period) were more from the pen of Robert Craft than Stravinsky, claims that the master had lost his way in Post-Webernian serialism, etc. were abundant.

I have a sense that the late works still suffer from those complaints and claims, and are ignored in favor of the earlier compositions.

https://www.youtube.com/v/2cFwu196A_w

[San Antone]

Complaints about the static nature of the work, claims that the work (and others from the same period) were more from the pen of Robert Craft than Stravinsky, claims that the master had lost his way in Post-Webernian serialism, etc. were abundant.

I have a sense that the late works still suffer from those complaints and claims, and are ignored in favor of the earlier compositions.

Claims which could be put to rest if one were to simply read what Stravinsky said and wrote during the last two decades of his life (1951 was when The Rakes Progress debuted, and was his last non-serial composition.  One could argue that as early as 1947 he had begun a stylistic shift in his private studies).  From 1954-1968 was one of his most prolific periods, when he wrote a group of large works, all using essentially the same serial-ish style. 

His was a deliberate and serious change in his process which was entirely his own, as were the works.

[Mahlerian]

that Threni recording going around looks great. Adding it to the (impossibly large) to-hear pile.

I recently wrote a review of it.  Believe the hype, that disc is GOOD: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R9VAZ0EEP1WD6/

[bhodges]

I recently wrote a review of it.  Believe the hype, that disc is GOOD: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R9VAZ0EEP1WD6/

Wow, excellent! Speaking as a professional writer, that is a quite well-written review. Thanks much.

--Bruce

[snyprrr]

Corigliano?? his works are being recorded, performed...

[Heck148]

:'

I enjoy a lot of his works. 

[Mahlerian]

Wow, excellent! Speaking as a professional writer, that is a quite well-written review. Thanks much.

--Bruce

Many thanks.  If I've helped convince you to move it up in that to-hear pile, my review will have done its duty.

[nathanb]

I find this thread title profoundly confusing