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117-620: In 1903, the orchestra of the Sociedad de Conciertos de Madrid , which had been founded in 1866 by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri , was gripped by a crisis due to financial difficulties and irreconcilable disagreements between its section leaders. Some of the players decided to regroup in a new ensemble, which would assume the role of the Sociedad in organizing symphonic concerts and thus keep the classical music scene alive in Madrid . The idea of

234-551: A harmonic structure that Stravinsky called "leit-harmony", a portmanteau of leitmotif and harmony used by Rimsky-Korsakov in his opera The Golden Cockerel . The "leit-harmony" was used to juxtapose the protagonist, the Firebird , and the antagonist, Koschei the Deathless : the former was associated with whole-tone phrases and the latter with octatonic harmony. Stravinsky later wrote how he composed The Firebird in

351-634: A naturalized French citizen, protecting all his future works under copyright in France and the United States. His family subsequently moved to an apartment on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, where he began writing a two-volume autobiography with the help of Walter Nouvel , published in 1935 and 1936 as Chroniques de ma vie . After the short run of Perséphone , Stravinsky embarked on

468-489: A contract with British publishing house Boosey & Hawkes , who agreed to publish all his future works. Additionally, he revised many of his older works and had Boosey & Hawkes publish the new editions to re-copyright his older works. Around the 1948 premiere of another Balanchine collaboration, the ballet Orpheus , the composer met the young conductor Robert Craft in New York; Craft had asked Stravinsky to explain

585-662: A contract with the player piano company Pleyel to create piano roll arrangements of his music. He received a studio at their factory on the Rue Rochechouart, where he reorchestrated Les noces for a small ensemble including player piano. The composer transcribed many of his major works for the mechanical pianos, and the Pleyel premises remained his Paris base until 1933, even after the player piano had been largely supplanted by electrical gramophone recording. Stravinsky signed another contract in 1924, this time with

702-578: A flurry of critical attacks, leading the writer H. G. Wells to publish an open letter in support of the work. During this period, Stravinsky expanded his involvement in conducting and piano performance. He conducted the premiere of his Octet in 1923 and served as the soloist for the premiere of his Piano Concerto in 1924. Following its debut, he embarked on a tour, performing the concerto in over 40 concerts. The Stravinsky family moved again in September 1924 to Nice , France. The composer's schedule

819-509: A folk tune from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden , showing the former's continued reverence for his teacher. Stravinsky's third ballet, The Rite of Spring , caused a near-riot at the premiere due to its avant-garde nature. He had begun to experiment with polytonality in The Firebird and Petrushka , but for The Rite of Spring , he "pushed [it] to its logical conclusion," as Eric Walter White described it. In addition,

936-506: A half-diploma. As he began spending more time in Rimsky-Korsakov's circle of artists, the young composer became increasingly cramped in the stylistically conservative atmosphere: modern music was questioned, and concerts of contemporary music were looked down upon. The group occasionally attended chamber concerts oriented to modern music, and while Rimsky-Korsakov and his colleague Anatoly Lyadov hated attending, Stravinsky remembered

1053-542: A misfortune which had befallen the defunct Sociedad. Through the contacts of Hierro and Mirecki, the orchestra secured the agreement of the Spanish conductor , Alonso Cordelás , to lead the ensemble. Cordelás resigned his post in Munich and headed for Madrid, bringing with him the scores for the orchestra's first concerts. On February 7, 1904, under the direction of Cordelás, the orchestra gave its first public concert at

1170-410: A musical connection to his Russian roots. The ballet Pulcinella was commissioned by Diaghilev in 1919 after he proposed the idea of a ballet based on music by 18th-century Italian composers like Giovanni Battista Pergolesi ; by imposing a work based on the harmonic and rhythmic systems of late-Baroque era composers, Stravinsky marked the start of his turn towards 18th-century music. Although

1287-511: A new orchestra in the city was conceived initially at the house of the violinist José del Hierro, who enjoyed the support of the two companions with whom he regularly played chamber music on tour, violist Julio Francés and cellist Víctor Mirecki Larramat . Their meeting was joined by two members of the Capilla Real , flautist Francisco González and clarinetist Miguel Yuste. After a concerted campaign to win over their colleagues in

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1404-883: A seat at the Institut de France further dissociated him from France, and shortly after the beginning of World War II in September 1939 he moved to the United States. Upon arriving in the United States, Stravinsky resided with Edward W. Forbes , the director of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures series at Harvard University . The composer was contracted to deliver six lectures for the series, beginning in October 1939 and ending in April 1940. The lectures, written with assistance from Pyotr Suvchinsky and Alexis Roland-Manuel , were published in French under

1521-478: A series of lectures. Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, Russia—a town now called Lomonosov , about thirty miles (fifty kilometers) west of Saint Petersburg —on 17 June [ O.S. 5 June] 1882. His mother, Anna Kirillovna Stravinskaya (née Kholodovskaya), was an amateur singer and pianist from an established family of landowners. His father, Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky ,

1638-572: A set of bagatelles , a "chanson comique", and a cantata , showing the use of classical musical techniques that would later define Stravinsky's neoclassical period. The musicologist Stephen Walsh described this time in Stravinsky's musical career as "aesthetically cramped" due to the "cynical conservatism" of Rimsky-Korsakov and his music. Rimsky-Korsakov thought the Symphony in E-flat (1907)

1755-441: A state of "revolt against Rimsky", and that he "tried to surpass him with ponticello , col legno , flautando , glissando , and fluttertongue effects". Stravinsky defined his musical character in his second ballet Petrushka . The Russian influence can be seen in the use of a number of Russian folk tunes in addition to two waltzes by Viennese composer Joseph Lanner and a French music hall tune. Stravinsky also used

1872-591: A successful three-month tour of the United States with Dushkin; he visited South America for the first time the following year. The composer's son Soulima was an excellent pianist, having performed the Capriccio in concert with his father conducting. Continuing a line of solo piano works, the elder Stravinsky composed the Concerto for Two Pianos to be performed by them both, and they toured the work through 1936. Around this time came three American-commissioned works:

1989-477: A tennis court, playing piano duet music, and later organizing group readings with their other cousins of books and political tracts from Fyodor Stravinsky's personal library. In July 1901, Stravinsky expressed infatuation with Lyudmila Kuxina, Nosenko's best friend, but after the self-described "summer romance" had ended, Nosenko and Stravinsky's relationship began developing into a furtive romance. Between their intermittent family visits, Nosenko studied painting at

2106-415: A toll on the elderly composer; January 1967 marked his last recording session, and his final public concert came the following May. After spending the autumn of 1967 in the hospital due to bleeding stomach ulcers and thrombosis , Stravinsky returned to domestic touring in 1968 (only appearing as an audience member) but stopped composing due to his gradual decline in physical health. In his final years,

2223-493: A work about what he called "a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young girl dance herself to death". He immediately shared the idea with Nicholas Roerich , a friend and painter of pagan subjects. When Stravinsky told Diaghilev about the idea, the impresario excitedly agreed to commission the work. After the premiere of Petrushka , Stravinsky settled at his family's residence in Ustilug and fleshed out

2340-461: Is often divided into three main periods: his Russian period (1913–1920), his neoclassical period (1920–1951), and his serial period (1954–1968). During his Russian period, Stravinsky was heavily influenced by Russian styles and folklore. Works such as Renard (1916) and Les noces (1923) drew upon Russian folk poetry, while compositions like L'Histoire du soldat (1918) integrated these folk elements with popular musical forms, including

2457-549: Is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music . Born to a musical family in Saint Petersburg , Russia, Stravinsky grew up taking piano and music theory lessons. While studying law at the University of Saint Petersburg , he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and studied music under him until the latter's death in 1908. Stravinsky met

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2574-593: The Académie Colarossi in Paris. The two married on 24 January 1906, at the Church of the Annunciation five miles (eight kilometers) north of Saint Petersburg – because marriage between first cousins was banned, they procured a priest who did not ask their identities, and the only guests present were Rimsky-Korsakov's sons. The couple soon had two children: Théodore , born in 1907, and Ludmila, born

2691-759: The Aeolian Company in London, producing rolls that included comments about the work by Stravinsky that were engraved into the rolls. He stopped working with player pianos in 1930 when the Aeolian Company's London branch was dissolved. The interest in Pushkin shared by Stravinsky and Diaghilev led to Mavra , a comic opera begun in 1921 that exhibited the composer's rejection of Rimsky-Korsakov's style and his turn towards classic Russian operatists like Tchaikovsky, Glinka , and Dargomyzhsky . Yet, after

2808-781: The Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel . After a service at Santi Giovanni e Paolo with a performance of the Requiem Canticles conducted by Craft, Stravinsky was buried on the cemetery island of San Michele in Venice, several yards from the tomb of Sergei Diaghilev. Much of Stravinsky's music is characterized by short, sharp articulations with minimal rubato or vibrato . His student works were primarily assignments from his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov and were mainly influenced by Russian composers. His first three ballets, The Firebird , Petrushka , and The Rite of Spring , marked

2925-482: The Khrushchev Thaw , partly due to the composer's 1962 visit. During his three-week visit he met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and several leading Soviet composers, including Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian . Stravinsky did not return to Los Angeles until December 1962 after eight months of almost continual traveling. Stravinsky revisited biblical themes for many of his later works, notably in

3042-650: The Second Viennese School like Arnold Schoenberg 's twelve-tone technique . In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954) was the first of his compositions to be fully based on the technique, and Canticum Sacrum (1956) was his first to be based on a tone row . Stravinsky's last major work was the Requiem Canticles (1966), which was performed at his funeral. While many supporters were confused by Stravinsky's constant stylistic changes, later writers recognized his versatile language as important in

3159-475: The Second Viennese School . Stravinsky's time before meeting Diaghilev was spent learning from Rimsky-Korsakov and his collaborators. Only three works survive from before Stravinsky met Rimsky-Korsakov in August 1902: " Tarantella " (1898), Scherzo in G minor (1902), and The Storm Cloud , the first two being works for piano and the last for voice and piano. Stravinsky's first assignment from Rimsky-Korsakov

3276-519: The University of Saint Petersburg , and he enrolled there in 1901. However, according to his own account, he was a bad student and attended few of the optional lectures. In exchange for agreeing to attend law school, his parents allowed for lessons in harmony and counterpoint . At university, Stravinsky befriended Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, son of the leading Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . During summer vacation of 1902, Stravinsky traveled with Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov to Heidelberg – where

3393-477: The impresario Sergei Diaghilev soon after, who commissioned the composer to write three ballets for the Ballets Russes 's Paris seasons: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913), the last of which caused a near-riot at the premiere due to its avant-garde nature and later changed the way composers understood rhythmic structure. Stravinsky's compositional career

3510-660: The pit and the stage. Its engagements during the late 1950s and early 1960s were almost ceaseless, as it embarked on various tours throughout Spain and abroad, especially to Portugal and Latin America. In 1965, the formation of another new orchestra based in the capital, the Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE , came once more at a cost to the ranks of the Madrid Symphony. During the 1970s, the Symphony's activity

3627-411: The sonata form , modernizing it by disregarding the standard ordering of themes and traditional tonal relationships for different sections. Baroque counterpoint was used throughout the choral Symphony of Psalms (1930). In the jazz -influenced Ebony Concerto (1945), Stravinsky fused big band orchestration with Baroque forms and harmonies. Stravinsky's neoclassical period ended in 1951 with

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3744-563: The white émigré -hub Biarritz in May 1921, partly due to the presence of his other lover Vera de Bosset . At the time, de Bosset was married to the former Ballet Russes stage designer Serge Sudeikin , though de Bosset later divorced Sudeikin to marry Stravinsky. Though Yekaterina Stravinsky became aware of her husband's infidelity, the Stravinskys never divorced, likely due to the composer's refusal to separate. In 1921, Stravinsky signed

3861-399: The 1922 premiere, the work's tame nature – compared to the innovative music Stravinsky had come to be known for – disappointed critics. In 1923, Stravinsky finished orchestrating Les noces , settling on a percussion ensemble including four pianos. The Ballets Russes staged the ballet-cantata that June, and although it initially received moderate reviews, the London production received

3978-426: The 1961 chamber cantata A Sermon, a Narrative and a Prayer , the 1962 musical television production The Flood , the 1963 Hebrew cantata Abraham and Isaac , and the 1966 Requiem Canticles , the last of which was his final major composition. Between tours, the composer worked relentlessly to devise new tone rows, even working on toilet paper from airplane lavatories. The intense touring schedule began taking

4095-481: The Concerto while on tour until 1933. That year, Stravinsky received another ballet commission from Ida Rubenstein for a setting of a poem by André Gide . The resulting melodrama Perséphone only received three performances in 1934 due to its lukewarm reception, and Stravinsky's disdain towards the work was evident in his later suggestion that the libretto be rewritten. In June of that year, Stravinsky became

4212-476: The February 1909 premiere of two new Stravinsky works: Scherzo fantastique and Feu d'artifice , both lively orchestral movements featuring bright orchestration and unique harmonic techniques. The vivid color and tone of Stravinsky's works intrigued Diaghilev, and the impresario subsequently commissioned Stravinsky to orchestrate music by Chopin for parts of the ballet Les Sylphides . This ballet

4329-533: The Mariinsky Theatre, where he was introduced to Russian repertoire as well as Italian and French opera; by sixteen, he attended rehearsals at the theater five or six days a week. By age fourteen, Stravinsky had mastered the solo part of Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 , and at age fifteen, he transcribed for solo piano a string quartet by Alexander Glazunov . Despite his musical passion and ability, Stravinsky's parents expected him to study law at

4446-553: The Moscow Free Theatre. In early 1914, his wife Yekaterina contracted tuberculosis and was admitted to a sanatorium in Leysin , Switzerland, where the couple's fourth child, Maria Milena, was born. Here Stravinsky finished The Nightingale , but after the Moscow Free Theatre closed before the premiere, Diaghilev agreed to stage the opera. The May 1914 premiere was moderately successful; critics' high expectations after

4563-596: The Sociedad, eighty per cent of the original orchestra joined the new ensemble proposed by Hierro. As a large number of the section leaders were also professors at the Madrid Royal Conservatory , the group managed to recruit young talents quickly to its vacant posts. The musicians held their first meeting in the rehearsal hall of the Teatro Real in December 1903, during which they decided on

4680-463: The Stravinskys and Craft moved to New York to be closer to medical care, and the composer's travel was limited to visiting family in Europe. Soon after being discharged from Lenox Hill Hospital after contracting pulmonary edema , Stravinsky moved with his wife to a new apartment on Fifth Avenue . The composer died there on 6 April 1971 at the age of 88. A funeral service was held three days later at

4797-605: The Stravinskys lived in Switzerland until 1920, initially residing in Clarens and later Morges . During the first months of the war, the composer intensely researched Russian folk poetry and prepared librettos for numerous works to be composed in the coming years, including Les noces , Renard , Pribaoutki , and other song cycles . Stravinsky met numerous Swiss-French artists during his time in Morges, including

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4914-570: The Teatro Real and presented the following program: At the beginning, Cordelás sought to impose a break with Madrid custom by performing each concert in two parts separated by one interval, rather than in three parts, and playing in the afternoon at 3 p.m., instead of at night. By the third concert, Cordelás was forced to restore the two intervals, and by the sixth, the night schedule (8:45 p.m.) also made its return. However, Cordelás' problems had only just begun: he had confrontations firstly with

5031-525: The United States, Stravinsky diligently attended church, participated in charity work, and studied religious texts. The composer later wrote that he was contacted by God at a service at the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua , leading him to write his first religious composition, the Pater Noster for a cappella choir. In 1925, Stravinsky asked the French writer and artist Jean Cocteau to write

5148-706: The accents seemingly at random to create asymmetry. The Rite of Spring is one of the most famous and influential works of the 20th century; the musicologist Donald Jay Grout described it as having "the effect of an explosion that so scattered the elements of musical language that they could never again be put together as before." The musicologist Jeremy Noble said that Stravinsky's "intensive researches into Russian folk material" took place during his time in Switzerland from 1914 to 1920. Béla Bartók considered Stravinsky's Russian period to have begun in 1913 with The Rite of Spring due to its use of Russian folk songs, themes, and techniques. The use of duple or triple meters

5265-469: The audience at the hall of the Teatro Monumental , December 1, 1935. The Spanish Civil War interrupted the orchestra's activities. The orchestra tried to stage concerts in besieged Madrid, but the number of available section leaders had shrunk drastically and those still in the city struggled to survive from day to day. The aftermath of the war marked the start of a long period of crisis for

5382-503: The author Charles F. Ramuz , with whom he collaborated on the small-scale theater work L'Histoire du soldat . The eleven-musician and two-dancer show was designed for easy travel, but after a premiere run funded by Werner Reinhart , all other performances were canceled due to the Spanish flu epidemic . Stravinsky's income from performance royalties was suddenly cut off when his Germany-based publisher suspended operations due to

5499-619: The ballet Jeu de cartes for Balanchine, the Brandenburg-Concerto -like work Dumbarton Oaks , and the lamenting Symphony in C for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra 's 50th anniversary. Stravinsky's last years in France from late 1938 to 1939 were marked by the deaths of his eldest daughter, his wife, and his mother, the former two from tuberculosis. In addition, the increasingly hostile criticism of his music in major publications and failed run for

5616-584: The ballet's experimental nature caused a near-riot at its premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913. Soon after, Stravinsky was admitted to a hospital for typhoid fever and stayed in recovery for five weeks; numerous colleagues visited him, including Debussy, Manuel de Falla , Maurice Ravel , and Florent Schmitt . Upon returning to his family in Ustilug, he continued work on his opera The Nightingale , now with an official commission from

5733-662: The ballet. Diaghilev continued to organize Ballets Russes shows across Europe, including two charity concerts for the Red Cross where Stravinsky made his conducting debut with The Firebird . When the Ballets Russes traveled to Rome in April 1917, Stravinsky met the artist Pablo Picasso , and the two adventured around Italy; a commedia dell'arte they saw in Naples inspired the ballet Pulcinella , which premiered in Paris in May 1920 with designs by Picasso. After

5850-488: The beginning of his international fame and a departure from 19th-century styles. Stravinsky's music is often divided into three periods of composition: his Russian period (1913–1920), where he was greatly influenced by Russian artists and folklore; his neoclassical period (1920–1951), where he turned towards techniques and themes from the classical period ; and his serial period (1954–1968), where he used highly structured composition techniques pioneered by composers of

5967-607: The choral Symphony of Psalms , a deeply religious work that premiered in December of that year. While touring in Germany, Stravinsky visited his publisher's home and met the violinist Samuel Dushkin , who convinced him to compose the Violin Concerto with Dushkin's help on the solo part. Impressed by Dushkin's virtuosic ability and understanding of music, the composer wrote more music for violin and piano and rearranged some of his earlier music to be performed alongside

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6084-411: The complex meter in the music consists of phrases combining conflicting time signatures and odd accents , such as the "jagged slashes" in the "Sacrificial Dance". Both polytonality and unusual rhythms can be heard in the chords that open the second episode, "Augurs of Spring", consisting of an E-flat dominant 7 superimposed on an F-flat major triad written in an uneven rhythm, Stravinsky shifting

6201-529: The composer sought to correct myths surrounding him and discuss his relationships with other artists. The article was later expanded into a book, and over the next four years, three more interview-style books were published. Continued international tours brought Stravinsky to Washington, D.C. in January 1962, where he attended a dinner at the White House with then-President John F. Kennedy in honor of

6318-565: The composer's 80th birthday. Although it was largely an anti-Soviet political stunt, Stravinsky remembered the event fondly, composing the Elegy for J.F.K. after the president's assassination a year later . In September 1962, he returned to Russia for the first time since 1914, accepting an invitation from the Union of Soviet Composers to conduct six performances in Moscow and Leningrad . After

6435-502: The concerts as intriguing and intellectually stimulating, being the first place he was exposed to French composers like Franck , Dukas , Fauré , and Debussy . Nevertheless, Stravinsky remained loyal to Rimsky-Korsakov – the musicologist Eric Walter White suspected that the composer believed compliance with Rimsky-Korsakov was necessary to succeed in the Russian music world. Stravinsky later wrote that his teachers' musical conservatism

6552-529: The details of the ballet with Roerich, later finishing the work in Clarens , Switzerland. The result was The Rite of Spring ( Le sacre du printemps ), which depicted pagan rituals in Slavonic tribes and used many avant-garde techniques, including uneven rhythms and meters , superimposed harmonies, atonality , and extensive instrumentation . With radical choreography by the young Vaslav Nijinsky ,

6669-637: The development of modernist music. Stravinsky's revolutionary ideas influenced composers as diverse as Aaron Copland , Philip Glass , Béla Bartók , and Pierre Boulez , who were all challenged to innovate music in areas beyond tonality , especially rhythm and musical form . In 1998, Time magazine listed Stravinsky as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. Stravinsky died of pulmonary edema on 6 April 1971 in New York City, having left six memoirs written with his friend and assistant Robert Craft , as well as an earlier autobiography and

6786-417: The favor of the public and rescued the fledgling orchestra from financial failure. After the departure of Cordelás, Enrique Fernández Arbós , a violinist and conductor, took over the orchestra. He was instrumental in totally restructuring the organization and presenting its new face in a major concert on April 16, 1905. Fernández Arbós' leadership was uninterrupted for over thirty years. During his tenure,

6903-469: The first third of the 20th century. It succeeded in attracting some illustrious guest conductors from abroad, such as Igor Stravinsky and Richard Strauss , and gave two important world premieres: Falla 's Nights in the Gardens of Spain with pianist José Cubiles , at the Teatro Real, April 9, 1916; and Prokofiev 's Second Violin Concerto with violinist Robert Soetens and the composer himself in

7020-598: The first time. On 27 February 1898, the Orchestra gave a performance Richard Strauss ' symphonic poem Don Quixote at the Teatro Príncipe Alfonso on the Paseo de Recoletos , which was conducted by the composer himself. Other famous conductors who were invited to the Orchestra included Luigi Mancinelli and Jerónimo Giménez . Due to a major economic crisis and irreconcilable disagreements between

7137-679: The following year. After finishing the many revisions of the Symphony in E-flat in 1907, Stravinsky wrote Faun and Shepherdess , a setting of three Pushkin poems for mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Rimsky-Korsakov organized the first public premiere of his student's work with the Imperial Court Orchestra in April 1907, programming the Symphony in E-flat and Faun and Shepherdess . Rimsky-Korsakov's death in June 1908 caused Stravinsky deep mourning, and he later recalled that Funeral Song , which he composed in memory of his teacher,

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7254-407: The group of Russian classical composers known as The Five , according to the musicologist Richard Taruskin ); Diaghilev's company settled on the subject of the mythical Firebird . Diaghilev asked multiple composers to write the ballet's score, including Lyadov and Nikolai Tcherepnin , but after none committed to the project, the impresario turned to the 27-year-old Stravinsky, who gladly accepted

7371-530: The instigation of the Fundación Teatro Lírico , a choir attached to the orchestra and conducted by Martin Merry , was also formed. Assured of a special position among Madrid's cultural institutions, the orchestra has now begun to develop an educational plan, with the creation of an "Orchestra School" under the direction of Andrés Zarzo . From 2002, after the death of García Navarro, to 2010

7488-537: The latter's family was staying – bringing a portfolio of pieces to demonstrate to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. While the elder composer was not stunned, he was impressed enough to insist that Stravinsky continue lessons but advised against him entering the Saint Petersburg Conservatory due to its rigorous environment. Importantly, Rimsky-Korsakov agreed personally to advise Stravinsky on his compositions. After Stravinsky's father died in 1902 and

7605-512: The libretto for an operatic setting of Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus Rex in Latin. The May 1927 premiere of his opera-oratorio Oedipus rex was staged as a concert performance since there was too little time and money to present it as a full opera, and Stravinsky attributed the work's critical failure to its programming between two glittery ballets. Furthermore, the influence from Russian Orthodox vocal music and 18th-century composers like Handel

7722-500: The libretto in November 1947; American writer Chester Kallman was later brought in to assist Auden. Stravinsky finished the opera of the same name in 1951, and despite its widespread performances and success, the composer was dismayed to find that his newer music did not captivate young composers. Craft had introduced Stravinsky to the serial music of the Second Viennese School shortly after The Rake's Progress premiered, and

7839-564: The loss of a large number of string players to the Civil War or exile; and the impossibility of recruiting European professors after the outbreak of World War II. However, in 1940, the appointment of Enrique Jordá provided the orchestra with some musical direction at least until 1945. The activity of the orchestra changed radically in 1958, when it became the tenured orchestra of the Teatro de la Zarzuela and alternated its appearances between

7956-667: The middle movement of which used music from an unused score for The Song of Bernadette (1943). The couple's poor English led to the formation of a predominantly European social circle and home life: the estate staff consisted of mostly Russians, and frequent guests included musicians Joseph Szigeti , Arthur Rubinstein , and Sergei Rachmaninoff . However, Stravinsky eventually joined popular Hollywood circles, attending parties with celebrities and becoming closely acquainted with European authors Aldous Huxley , W. H. Auden , Christopher Isherwood , and Dylan Thomas . In 1945, Stravinsky received American citizenship and subsequently signed

8073-471: The musicologist Jeremy Noble considered Stravinsky's neoclassical period to have begun in 1920 with his Symphonies of Wind Instruments , Bartók argued that the period "really starts with his Octet for Wind Instruments, followed by his Concerto for Piano ". During this period, Stravinsky used techniques and themes from the classical period of music . Greek mythology was a common theme in Stravinsky's neoclassical works. His first Greek mythology-based work

8190-551: The name Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid . The orchestra was constituted as a private, autonomous company of musicians, which would rely initially on its members to supply the setup funds for its operations (including the purchase of furniture and hiring of rehearsal halls and scores ). Subsequently, however, the orchestra would support itself solely with earnings from concerts and recordings. It would avoid any dependence on external agents, whether public or private, who might intervene in its operations and impose conditions on its members,

8307-711: The opera The Rake's Progress . Taruskin described the opera as "the hub and essence of 'neo-classicism'". He pointed out how the opera contains numerous references to Greek mythology and other operas like Mozart's Don Giovanni and Bizet's Carmen , but still "embod[ies] the distinctive structure of a fairy tale". Stravinsky was inspired by the operas of Mozart in composing the music, particularly Così fan tutte , but other scholars also point out influence from Handel , Gluck , Beethoven , Schubert , Weber , Rossini , Donizetti , and Verdi . The Rake's Progress has become an important work in opera repertoire , being "[more performed] than any other opera written after

8424-494: The opera's composer began studying and listening to the music of Anton Webern and Arnold Schoenberg . During the 1950s, Stravinsky continued touring extensively across the world, occasionally returning to Los Angeles to compose. In 1953, he agreed to compose a new opera with a libretto by Dylan Thomas, but development on the project came to a sudden end following Thomas's death in November of that year. Stravinsky completed In Memoriam Dylan Thomas , his first work fully based on

8541-417: The orchestra determined its artistic priorities (above all, the promotion of Spanish composers and soloists), found its particular sonorous style, and established the principles of musical outreach which enabled it to give educational concerts and attract new listeners: lower ticket prices, more seats, and frequent tours. The orchestra featured the work of almost all the Spanish composers who flourished during

8658-497: The orchestra has been led by the musical conductor of the Teatro Real, Jesús López-Cobos . Sociedad de Conciertos de Madrid The Sociedad de Conciertos de Madrid (English: Madrid Concert Society ) was the first permanent symphony orchestra in Spain . The private Society was founded in 1866 by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri and Joaquín Gaztambide , who assumed responsibility for its organization and artistic direction. It

8775-534: The orchestra, which began with the death of Fernández Arbós in June 1939, following the first concerts that year. To this blow was added the absence of the section leaders who had died during the Civil War or fled into exile after the victory of General Francisco Franco . Finally, in 1940, the Spanish National Orchestra was formed, with its seat in Madrid, and drew away further players from

8892-439: The premiere and subsequent performances, he met many figures in the Paris art scene; Debussy was brought on stage after the premiere and invited Stravinsky to dinner, beginning a lifelong friendship between the two composers. The Stravinsky family moved to Lausanne , Switzerland, for the birth of their third child, Soulima , and it was there that Stravinsky began work on a Konzertstück for piano and orchestra depicting

9009-580: The premiere, beginning decades of collaborations between Stravinsky and the choreographer. Nevertheless, some critics found it to be a turning point in Stravinsky's neoclassical music, describing it as a pure work that blended neoclassical ideas with modern methods of composition. A new commission for a ballet from Ida Rubinstein in 1928 led Stravinsky again to Tchaikovsky. Basing the music on romantic ballets like Swan Lake and borrowing many themes from Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky wrote The Fairy's Kiss with Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Ice-Maiden as

9126-517: The productions at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, most notably in the television series Antología de la Zarzuela (1971) directed by José Tamayo . In contrast, the number of symphonic concerts it offered during these years fell greatly, and took place, in the majority of cases, in second-rate venues. This situation influenced the decision of many aging, long-standing players, who were receiving low pay in comparison with their intense work, to retire. Filling

9243-577: The revision of the Symphonies of Wind Instruments for an upcoming concert. The two quickly became friends and Stravinsky invited Craft to Los Angeles; the young conductor soon became Stravinsky's assistant, collaborator, and amanuensis until the composer's death. As Stravinsky became more familiar with English, he developed the idea to write an English-language opera based on a series of paintings by 18th-century artist William Hogarth titled The Rake's Progress . The composer joined Auden to write

9360-510: The section leaders about rehearsals and the organization of concerts, and then with the hall owners about concert times, and finally had to face bad reviews and the rejection of his artistic choices by the public. These compelled him to resign at the end of the season, together with the founding concertmaster , José del Hierro. The remaining concerts of the first season, which included the long-overdue Madrid premieres of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony and Brahms ' First Symphony , nonetheless won

9477-502: The section leaders of the Orchestra, the Society was dissolved in 1903. The majority of its members regrouped to form the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid , which has continued to play to the present day. Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (17 June [ O.S. 5 June] 1882 – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He

9594-673: The serial twelve-tone technique , the following year. The 1956 cantata Canticum Sacrum premiered at the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice, inspiring Norddeutscher Rundfunk to commission the musical setting Threni in 1957. With the Balanchine ballet Agon , Stravinsky fused neoclassical themes with the twelve-tone technique, and Threni showed his full shift towards use of tone rows . In 1959, Craft interviewed Stravinsky for an article titled Answers to 35 Questions , in which

9711-589: The sonata, the student began his large-scale Symphony in E-flat , the first draft of which he finished in 1905. That year, the dedicatee of the Piano Sonata, Nikolay Richter, performed it at a recital hosted by the Rimsky-Korsakovs, marking the first public premiere of a Stravinsky piece. After the events of Bloody Sunday in January 1905 caused the university to close, Stravinsky was not able to take his final exams, resulting in his graduation with

9828-460: The spread of Wagernism and European symphonic music in Spain. It advanced the careers of new Spanish talents, such as Tomás Bretón , Joaquín Turina , Ruperto Chapí , and Isaac Albéniz . In 1876, the conductorship passed to Mariano Vázquez Gómez , under whose guidance the Orchestra offered Spanish audiences the chance to hear the complete cycle of Beethoven 's symphonies in their homeland for

9945-403: The subject. The November 1928 premiere was not well-received, likely due to the disconnect between each of the ballet's sections and the mediocre choreography, of which Stravinsky disapproved. Diaghilev's fury with Stravinsky for accepting a ballet commission from someone else caused an intense feud between the two, one that lasted until the impresario's death in August 1929. Most of that year

10062-467: The success of The Firebird and The Rite of Spring in the 1910s, Stravinsky's music was respected and frequently performed in the Soviet Union, influencing young Soviet composers at the time like Dmitri Shostakovich . However, after Stalin began consolidating power in the early 1930s, Stravinsky's music nearly vanished and was formally banned in 1948. A new interest in his works was born during

10179-474: The symphony, since it offered them the generous salaries of civil servants. Those who refused to leave did so out of loyalty or because they were "suspects" in the eyes of Franco's regime. The effects of the departure were especially dire for the string section, which could not fill vacancies easily for three reasons: the poor delivery of music education during the Second Spanish Republic ;

10296-469: The tale of a puppet coming to life. After Diaghilev heard the early drafts, he convinced Stravinsky to turn it into a ballet for the 1911 season. The resulting work, Petrushka (under the French spelling Petrouchka ), premiered in Paris on 13 June 1911 to equal popularity as The Firebird , and Stravinsky became established as one of the most advanced young theater composers of his time. While composing The Firebird , Stravinsky conceived an idea for

10413-401: The tango, waltz, ragtime , and chorale . His neoclassical period exhibited themes and techniques from the classical period , like the use of the sonata form in his Octet (1923) and use of Greek mythological themes in works including Apollon musagète (1927), Oedipus rex (1927), and Persephone (1935). In his serial period, Stravinsky turned towards compositional techniques from

10530-457: The task. During the ballet's production, Stravinsky became close with Diaghilev's artistic circle, who were impressed by his enthusiasm to learn more about non-musical art forms. The Firebird premiered in Paris (as L'Oiseau de feu ) on 25 June 1910 to widespread critical acclaim, and made Stravinsky an overnight sensation. Many critics praised the composer's alignment with Russian nationalist music. Stravinsky later recollected that after

10647-539: The title Poétique musicale ( Poetics of Music ) in 1941, with an English translation following in 1947. Between lectures, Stravinsky finished the Symphony in C and toured across the country, meeting de Bosset upon her arrival in New York. Stravinsky and de Bosset finally married on 9 March 1940 in Bedford, Massachusetts . After the completion of his lecture series, the couple moved to Los Angeles, where they applied for American naturalization . Money became scarce as

10764-440: The tumultuous Rite of Spring were not met, though fellow composers were impressed by the music's emotion and free treatment of counterpoint and themes . In early July 1914, while his family resided in Switzerland near his sick wife, the composer traveled to Russia to retrieve texts for his next work, a ballet-cantata depicting Russian wedding traditions titled Les noces . Soon after he returned, World War I began, and

10881-400: The vacancies posed a major problem and consequently the musical quality of the orchestra suffered. During the Spanish transition to democracy after Franco's death in 1975, the then Minister of Culture, Soledad Becerril , offered the orchestra a contract which would grant it exclusive rights to serve the Teatro de la Zarzuela in performances of operas, ballets , and zarzuelas. The orchestra

10998-523: The voices were placed in the orchestra, as they were meant to accompany the action on stage. L'Histoire du soldat was composed in 1918 with the Swiss novelist Charles F. Ramuz as a small musical theatre production for dancers, a narrator, and a septet . It mixed the Russian folktales in the narrative with common musical structures of the time, like the tango , waltz , rag , and chorale . Even as his style changed in later years, Stravinsky maintained

11115-508: The war ended, Stravinsky decided that his residence in Switzerland was too far from Europe's musical activity, and briefly moved his family to Carantec , France. In September 1920, they relocated to the home of Coco Chanel , an associate of Diaghilev's, where Stravinsky composed his early neoclassical work the Symphonies of Wind Instruments . After his relationship with Chanel developed into an affair, Stravinsky relocated his family to

11232-567: The war stopped the composer from receiving European royalties, making him take up numerous conducting engagements and compose commercial works for the entertainment industry, including the Scherzo à la russe for Paul Whiteman and the Scènes de ballet for a Broadway revue. Some discarded film music made it into larger works, as with the war-inspired Symphony in Three Movements ,

11349-402: The war. To keep his family afloat, the composer sold numerous manuscripts and accepted commissions from wealthy impresarios; one such commission included Renard , a theater work completed in 1916 upon a request from Princesse Edmond de Polignac . Additionally, Stravinsky made a new concert suite from The Firebird and sold it to a London publisher in an attempt to regain copyright control over

11466-475: The young composer became more independent, he became increasingly involved in Rimsky-Korsakov's circle of artists. His first major task from his new teacher was the four-movement Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor in the style of Glazunov and Tchaikovsky – he paused temporarily to write a cantata for Rimsky-Korsakov's 60th birthday celebration, which the elder composer described as "not bad". Soon after finishing

11583-545: Was "the best of my works before The Firebird ". In 1898, the impresario Sergei Diaghilev founded the Russian art magazine Mir iskusstva , but after it ended publication in 1904, he turned towards Paris for artistic opportunities rather than his native Russia. In 1907, Diaghilev presented a five-concert series of Russian music at the Paris Opera ; the following year, he staged the Paris premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov's version of Boris Godunov . Diaghilev attended

11700-597: Was a deeply lonely child and I wanted a sister of my own. Catherine, who was my first cousin, came into my life as a kind of long-wanted sister   ... We were from then until her death extremely close, and closer than lovers sometimes are, for mere lovers may be strangers though they live and love together all their lives   ... Catherine was my dearest friend and playmate ... until we grew into our marriage. The two had grown close during family trips, encouraging each other's interest in painting and drawing, swimming together often, going on wild raspberry picks, helping build

11817-661: Was a famous bass at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, descended from a line of Polish landowners. The name "Stravinsky" is of Polish origin, deriving from the Strava river in eastern Poland. The family was originally called "Soulima-Stravinsky", bearing the Soulima arms, but "Soulima" was dropped after Russia's annexation during the partitions of Poland . Oranienbaum, the composer's birthplace,

11934-455: Was based on a folktale collected by Alexander Afanasyev . Many of Stravinsky's Russian period works featured animal characters and themes, likely due to inspiration from nursery rhymes he read with his children. Stravinsky also used unique theatrical styles. Les noces blended the staging of ballets with the small instrumentation of early cantatas, a unique production described on the score as "Russian Choreographic Scenes". In Renard ,

12051-604: Was divided between spending time with his family in Nice, performing in Paris, and touring other locations, often accompanied by de Bosset. At this time, Stravinsky was going through a spiritual crisis onset by meeting Father Nicolas, a priest near his new home. He had abandoned the Russian Orthodox Church during his teenage years, but after meeting Father Nicolas in 1926 and reconnecting with his faith, he began regularly attending services. From then until moving to

12168-714: Was educated by the family's governess until age eleven, when he began attending the Second Saint Petersburg Gymnasium , a school he recalled hating because he had few friends. From age nine, Stravinsky studied privately with a piano teacher. He later wrote that his parents saw no musical talent in him due to his lack of technical skills; the young pianist frequently improvised instead of practicing assigned pieces. Stravinsky's excellent sight-reading skill prompted him to frequently read vocal scores from his father's vast personal library. At around age ten, he began regularly attending performances at

12285-450: Was especially prevalent in Stravinsky's Russian period music; while the pulse may have remained constant, the time signature would often change to constantly shift the accents. While Stravinsky did not use as many folk melodies as he had in his first three ballets, he often used folk poetry. The ballet-cantata Les noces was based on texts from a collection of Russian folk poetry by Pyotr Kireevsky , and his opera-ballet Renard

12402-426: Was justified, and helped him build the foundation that would become the base of his style. In August 1905, Stravinsky announced his engagement to Yekaterina Nosenko , his first cousin whom he had met in 1890 during a family trip. He later recalled: From our first hour together we both seemed to realize that we would one day marry—or so we told each other later. Perhaps we were always more like brother and sister. I

12519-664: Was maintained after it signed a new contract, this time with the Community of Madrid , to provide annual cycles of concerts in the new Auditorium. In 1997, the orchestra moved out of the Teatro de la Zarzuela to take up residence at the Teatro Real, which had been reopened recently by the Community. This contract will run until 2009. In 1999, the orchestra made several new appointments in the posts of principal conductor, Luis Antonio García Navarro , honorary conductor, Kurt Sanderling , and composer associate, Cristóbal Halffter . At

12636-447: Was not well received in the press after the May 1927 premiere; neoclassicism was not popular with Parisian critics, and Stravinsky had to publicly assert that his music was not part of the movement. This reception from critics was not improved by Stravinsky's next ballet, Apollon musagète , which depicted the birth and apotheosis of Apollo using an 18th-century ballet de cour musical style. George Balanchine choreographed

12753-436: Was presented by Diaghilev's ballet company, the Ballets Russes , in April 1909, and while the company scored successes with Parisian audiences, Stravinsky was working on Act I of his first opera The Nightingale . As the Ballets Russes faced financial issues, Diaghilev wanted a new ballet with distinctly Russian music and design, something that had recently become popular with French and other Western audiences (likely due to

12870-545: Was recommended for this role by its institutional stability, experience, historical renown, and location in Madrid. The contract was signed in July 1981. To suit the interests of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, the orchestra underwent gradual restructuring to regain its quality. The opening of the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid promised the orchestra new prospects, especially in symphonic performance. This ideal

12987-562: Was spent composing a new solo piano work, the Capriccio , and touring across Europe to conduct and perform piano; the Capriccio's success after the December 1929 premiere caused a flurry of performance requests from many orchestras. A commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930 for a symphonic work led Stravinsky back to Latin texts, this time from the book of Psalms . Between touring concerts, he composed

13104-468: Was swayed too much by Glazunov 's style, and disliked the modernist influence on Faun and Shepherdess (1907); however, critics found the works to not stand out from his teacher's music. Russian composers often used large orchestration to feature many different timbres , and Stravinsky harnessed this idea in his first three ballets, often surprising the musicians and performers due to the orchestra's great force at certain moments. The Firebird used

13221-643: Was the ballet Apollon musagète (1927), choosing the leader of the Muses and the god of art Apollo as the subjects. Stravinsky would use themes from Greek mythology in future works like Oedipus rex (1927), Persephone (1935), and Orpheus (1947). Richard Taruskin wrote that Oedipus rex was "the product of Stravinsky's neo-classical manner at its most extreme," and that musical techniques "thought outdated" were juxtaposed against contemporary ideas. In addition, Stravinsky turned towards older musical structures and modernized them. His Octet (1923) uses

13338-538: Was the four-movement Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor , which was also his first work to be performed in public. Rimsky-Korsakov often gave Stravinsky the task of orchestrating various works to allow him to analyze the works' form and structure. Many of Stravinsky's early works showed influence from French composers as well, notably in the minimal use of large doublings and different combinations of tone colors. A number of Stravinsky's student compositions were performed at Rimsky-Korsakov's gatherings at his home; these include

13455-574: Was the heir of the orchestra formed by the Sociedad Artístico Musical de Socorros Mutuos which was based at the Teatro Real in Madrid . Barbieri conducted the Orchestra during its inaugural season and was succeeded by Gatzambide in the following. The first musical director who served at length was Jesús de Monasterio , who was appointed in 1869 and remained until 1876. The Orchestra divided its activities between theatrical productions and symphonic concerts, and contributed to

13572-426: Was tied closely to the needs of the Teatro de la Zarzuela. It took advantage of this niche, however, when it contracted with the company Hispavox to record a large number of zarzuelas and Spanish operas . The resulting recordings were invaluable not only for their quality but also because this was the first time that Spanish stage music had been welcomed without major inhibitions. The orchestra participated in all

13689-819: Was where his family vacationed during summers; their primary residence was an apartment along the Kryukov Canal in central Saint Petersburg, near the Mariinsky Theatre. Stravinsky was baptized hours after birth and joined to the Russian Orthodox Church in St. Nicholas Cathedral . Constantly in fear of his short-tempered father and indifferent towards his mother, Igor lived there for the first 27 years of his life with three siblings: Roman and Yury, his older siblings who irritated him immensely, and Gury, his close younger brother with whom he said he found "the love and understanding denied us by our parents". Igor

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