It's really amazing and heartwarming to see an old man of 82 needing the support of a cane, becoming so alive on stage with his music and transcending the boundaries of age with it. Brilliant.
@@raymondschroeder7270 exactly! Without performers the composer would have nothing. Vice versa! In its purest form, after the work and dedication, no intimidation, only respect.
What makes this amazing performance even more interesting, is that the BBC broadcast was produced by David Attenborough who was also in the audience listening.
A friend of mine pointed out Stravinsky smiles around 6:00. It's probably because he cues the horns slightly early...which makes this even better. I love this.
Sorry to be *that person* but he doesn't cue the horns early... 4th horn enters two before the allegro, exactly where he cues, and then the 2nd horn an octave higher the bar later!
I grew up in the 60's. My home had every kind of music playing all the time. My mom played this album all the time. I fell in love with both the music and the album cover. How wonderful to be able at my age (59) to watch him conduct his magnificent creation.
Wow, so cool that we live in an age where we can watch footage of all this! Can you imagine if we had footage like this of Mozart and Beethoven and the famous poets reciting their works, etc.? The people of the distant future have no idea how lucky they'll be that they can look back on all the collected history of mankind from video/photographs on up.
Something so astounding about watching him conduct, his face responding to every nuance. Makes me hear things I didn't before. In the music. What a rare treat, thank you for posting.
Now not only is his composing supreme, but his conducting is beautifu, he really makes the orchestra FEEL the music, it's very lyrical, expressive, intricate and detailed as a performance. Well done Stravinsky. God bless!
wow... this man is a legend... your looking at the guy who composed Rite of Spring and Firebird, probably the most influential songs of the 20th Century... Just Spectacular
The french horn solo in this song is the reason I love playing my french horn. That solo is one of the most beautiful and uplifting melodies I've ever heard. The ending also just makes me want smile uncontrolably for hours and go and save the world or something :D
@@abuasaduzzaman6964 I have always much preferred Stravinsky. I heard "The Rite of Spring" when I was 11 years old (not from Disney's Fantasia). It was a profound experience that would reverberate in further investigations of his music. Then when I learned about the man: his triumphs in Paris, his life in Los Angeles, his appearances on American television, he became an icon in my life, forever enshrined as a very special human being. I even have Picasso's portrait of him on my wall.
To take license with a tempo = sentimentality? I think tempo has simply far more to do with timing. Sentimentality is more a function of the melody and it's chords. Via tempo you can accentuate that melody by, say, lingering on it, but it is still the melody and chords that dictate the emotions the music conveys.
Fantastic. Beautifully played. Lovely sound. Magnificent brass. This time genius is the right word - for Stravinsky. Three great ballets written within four years of each other. All three with their own character and all three innovative, absorbing, brilliant, exotic and exciting.
Leader, Hugh Bean; (1'27") bassoon, Gwydion Brook; (1'45") oboe, Peter Graeme; (1'56") cello, Raymond Clark nearest camera, Peter Beavan behind; (4'25") horn, Alan Civil
Of all the ghosts haunting RU-vid's cyberspace, can you think of anyone more venerable or celebrated than this man? AND this timeless, gorgeous piece of music? So much to celebrate here.....so much to be joyful and thoughtful about. The media has captured a moment in history that will never be forgotten.
What the master composer got perfect, the master conductor performed perfectly...It doesn't get better than that !! See how intense he is in making sure his work is properly communicated to his audience. How wonderful to be a part of that. Obviously on in years, see how the performance transforms him, smiling at the end, even applauding his own orchestra, actually spry as he walks off stage. That truly is the magic of the arts !! Don't let it die, our society needs it more than ever now ..
Can you imagine such magnificent orchestral writing and utter beauty coming from the young stravinsky who'd only composed a few orchestral works at the time (1908)? Rimsky did a good job teaching young Igor.
The leader was Mr Hugh Bean, my violin professor at the RCM, the one who shakes hands first with Stravinksy. He told me about this moment, and showed me photos of it, and during the rehearsal, when he talks to Stravinsky. He was of course extremely impressed by this experience.
I've watched this over and over again. This is what gladdens my heart: imagine you are Stravinksy here--you are 82, so you can't be all theatrical and conduct with sweeping motions--you conduct with your face, a finger to an ear, one closed fist keeping time, softly at first and then majestically. You wrote this masterpiece over 45 years ago, yet you can fill the Festival Hall with an appreciative audience to hear your composition and watch you conduct. After the brilliant brass fanfare at the end, the audience lightly applauds, and you acknowledge the orchestra in a perfunctory manner. Then you turn around to face the audience, and the cheering starts, along with a standing ovation--rare in those days. You are caught off guard, and smile and bow, a very old man for 1965. Now you turn back to the orchestra, pleased, and really thank them, and shake the hand of the 1st violin to your left, a cellist (?) to your right, as the cheering increases. You turn back to the audience again, happy and grateful, and acknowledge their love with waves. You are helped off the platform and steered towards the rear--you can see the intense respect that the 1st violinist has for you, as he helps you down and bows to you several times. Another violinist towards the rear spontanteously reaches for your hand , for you are a living legend. You are helped down again, and still the audience claps and cheers, and you have to bow to the side balconies and wave once more to the entire crowd. You, Stravinsky, have outlived Lenin (1924) and Hitler (1945) and Stalin (1953), whose legacies are blood, not art-----How many of us could: a) write a beautiful ballet, and b) conduct an orchestra playing our ballet, and c) live long enough to savor our achievement?? No unmarked pauper's grave for you (Mozart), no suicide before ever having sold a painting in life (Van Gogh), and no dying of an overdose (Janis Joplin) or a plane crash (Jim Croce) before your music really took off! And Mr. Stravinsky, because you gave me this beautiful piece of music (I first heard it at the Buffalo Phil with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting in 1976\77 ), I am so happy that you lived to savor this moment, and that you were given this gift of appreciation back. And I am thankful for the archivist and for whoever posted this.
Amazing to see the composer transcend the technicality of making music and putting his will into the musicians, like playing one piano, and creating such beauty. All the musicians are playing like one instrument, they are so cohesive. It is truly magnificent.
This is arguably the best ballet ever composed, and this finale sends chills down my spine from the overexposure to beauty in its purest and most concentrated form. Stravinsky, I hope that reincarnation exists because I want more!
This video is most popular with: Male 45-54 Male 55-64 Male 35-44 I heard this piece when I was about five. I loved it. I am fifteen right now and I still love it. This IS music. There is no piece of music today that can give you the beautiful feeling that Stravinsky's music can give you. I am so thankful to my parents who introduced me to this kind of music at such a young age. If the hadn't, I would be playing electric guitar instead of viola and listening to modern music. :(
Love this clip, after 6:00 glimmers and hints of a smile to cross Stravinsky's face and then big grins. Must be pleasant to look back to a work you did 55 years before and still be happy with it. (he was 28 when he wrote this)
When I was piano soloist for the NEW YORK CITY BALLET...the company under the direction of George Balanchine, created the STRAVINSKY FESTIVAL in 1971...my first year there. There were many ballets created to Stravinsky's music...and he was there to watch Mr. Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and others create dance works to his music. These ballets became very well known...and are performed in many companies around the world. It was an astonishing amount of work. It was a privilege to be there...
I was still in high school when I saw a NYC Ballet program that summer (or possibly the following) at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. During the intermission I looked under my bench and through a opening in the ampitheater floor I could see Balanchine rehearsing with a dancer before Agon was performed! I think Symphony in Three Movements and several other ballets were done, of course as a memorial to Stravinsky. Were you there?
@saintsaens21 It's amazing how, often enough, when the composer is present, either actually conducing or even just "there" the performance generally becomes "that much better."
How brilliant conducting. Very detailed, precise and expressive, without being romanticized. Sweet when it needs to be, harsh and violent when it needs to be
Every time I listen to this I always cry at the end. To see the great man himself conducting his own composition is so wonderful and I will forever be thankful to KN for his post! It's so sweet at the end how he turns and applauds the orchestra! This was my Uncle B's favorite music and he passed away today. I'm sure he is in heaven listening to Stravinsky play this - RIP UB - we'll miss you! xoxoxo
The way he builds it up to the epic conclusion is exactly what I've been looking for in this piece although I prefer the modern interpretation of blasting the hell out of the brass in the end. Perhaps he originally did too but since it's Stravinsky he can do whatever he wants with this piece and people will still love it.
I'm happy to be a young teenager that respects this kind of music. My full orchestra is playing this right now, and I wish everyone in my orchestra could watch this video. Beautiful :)
This is what true art is. Creating something and knowing it by heart; every single joy and pain. I bet every time Stravinsky heard his masterpiece, it blossomed to reveal a new moment to him, and those of us who love it still.
This is the first time i'm hearing this and the second it played, my eyes watered for no reason. I was reading a book and they said about the Firebird...so here I am..
JUST WONDERFUL TO WATCH THE GREAT MASTER CONDUCTING HIS OWN WORK. THIS IS NOT I WANT TO SAY, I HAVE NO WORDS TO SAY WHAT I FEEL WHILE WATCH THE GREAT STRAVINSKY IN THIS VIDEO AND HEAR THE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC. THAT MOVES ME ALMOST TO TEARS. THANKS A LOT FOR SHARE THIS KARTHIKTN, THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH!
So many great stories at UCLA with us composition majors about the Schoenberg-Stravinsky rivalry...poor Gershwin had to lie if he was already booked playing tennis with one when the other called..."They were impossible to have in the same place..." he explained to friends; "I didn't want to make either one mad".
+Rhondda Nunes Is UCLA's music composition major good? I am a student studying in community college in SF Bay Area. I am gonna transfer to a UC system university for music composition major in 2018. But I don't know if this major in UCLA is pretty good. Especially I'm interested in learning orchestration and counterpoints skills. Could you give me some information about UCLA's music composition major? I'm really appreciate!
No wonder audience and players have a combination of rapture and sadness - they know this is an historic and unrepeatable event; to see the master conduct one of his great works composed almost 60 years before. Imagine if we had footage of Beethoven conducting his 9th in 1824; this comes close. And to see Stravinsky smile at the end is once in a lifetime! Just glorious. All hail the time-defying power of the camera
This masterpiece is one of my favorites...! I cannot express my emotion. This is the voice of the universe. Thank's to your Genius Maestro, Thank you very much...!!
STRAVINSKY, THE INMORTAL, WAS THE BEST MUSIC COMPOSER OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE XX CENTURY. THIS VIDEO GIVE US THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE HIM CONDUCTING ONE OF HIS WORK. THANKS
I was introduced to this composer by my fav Prog band YES (*they play this composition at the beginning of their recitals). Then I started studying his work, and totally loved it. Greatest composer.
Chills. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Stravinsky. To have seen them conducting a personal masterpiece. The stuff of legend. The stuff of dreams. One out of four must suffice. Thank you for posting!
So wonderful to see him conduct this and hear the crowd roar with appreciation. Unimaginable that there are a few empty seats down front at this concert. If only time travel were possible...
Stravinsky had an ear for the entire spectrum . . from the breathy harmonics of the strings to the blend of winds. He wrote for French horn like no one else and knew exactly how to write for percussion - perfectly purposeful and overindulgent to a fault.
The most rewarding thing about watching this video is seeing this cute little turtle-like man (Mr. Stravinsky) light up at the very last moments of his piece. I could tell how proud he was. :-)
I was utterly mesmerized watching this. For once I was glad the camera director spent more time focussing on the conductor's face and not the orchestra. And what a coup for the Philharmonia Orchestra to have had one of the greatest composers of the 20th century conduct his own music with them ( there's an untold story there surely). And what a once in a lifetime experience for even the most experienced professional musicians.
