I knew a violinist from here in Los Angeles who went over to Stravinsky's house to pick up a copy of his Violin Concerto. Stravinsky, by then in his 80s, came to the door with the score and said, "Here you go, I hope you have some good luck with this piece. Everybody thinks I stopped composing after The RIte of Spring."
TheLastOfTheFinest80 Many accounts depict Stravinsky to be quite condescending as do manh of his quotes, but in his later days his agitation seemed to have been alleviated since in many of these recordings he is shown to be quite well tempered, relaxed, and kind.
The really miraculous thing is that Stravinsky wrote that music more than half a century earlier. The world was far different a place at the turn of the 20th century. Soon to be gone was the romantic era style of composing. Elgar and a few others were still around but by now they were considered old-fashioned, as Stravinsky and Ives and others were by then trying to get everyone onto the waves of dissonance, atonality, and odd rhythmical structures...and showing just how wonderful it all could be.
Stravinsky's Firebird is far and away my favorite classical composition and what a blessing it is to be able to see the Maestro himself conducting his masterful work. It's just the best! Thank you so much for posting this!
I would have given anything to see a Stravinsky performance. My mother's aunt, now 103 years old, and her 75 year old daughter, saw him in Portland (Oregon) in the 1960s, conducting this with the Portland (now Oregon) Symphony. I don't know if he ever conducted much music outside of his own but there is a recording of him conducting violinist Erica Morini playing the Tchaikovsky with the New York Philharmonic!
That is right, but any re-composer, conductor and orchestra, singer, instrument etc. can contribute there own versions. There should be no rules. As long it is real art, it is an enrichment.
Interesting how Maestro Stravinsky at 27:33 chooses those Short punctuated Finale notes rather than how any other Conductor I’ve heard. All other versions have those melody notes “Legato”. Hmmmm, I think I prefer them Legato...but maybe I’m just used to that? Hmmm
@@drbassface this topic is always being discussed about Firebird. I think legato notes create that "grandeur" quality that the music deserved, the sound become more noble, bright and obviously richer in tone. But in my opinion Stravinsky jumping notes means either two things: 1. He wants to keep the energy of the ballet on, jumping tone can give the atmosphere agitate, not dragging the tempo at all 2. He is the freakin' composer of this piece, if he decide jumping sound is better and is the preferred one, then let it be so 🤣
I was mesmerized by this. Just think, only a few years before the performance Japan rose from the ashes of its defeat and the Holocaust of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The orchestra was so dynamic and filled with such excitement. They played as one with the dynamic rarely seen in American orchestras today. There may have been faults, but the whole thing was clothed with the patina of genius
WOW, this is historic plus!! Hard to imagine but I have a first hand story of someone, an remarkable oboist, with the Toronto Symphony joining them in the early 1940's....he told me, as we played in the late 90's in a community orchestra in Barrie Ontario, that he once played under Stravinsky, with the Philadelphia Symphony! If I am not mistaken they recorded some of his music with him conducting - Just holy wow!! He was a lovely man, played with my incredible teacher Avrahm Galper in the TSO for many years - those were the days too!!
Yes! Stravinsky himself said it is very important that the composer conduct his own work. I hear him manifesting his creation, pulling the raw sound out in the only way his mind can envision. I also love Copland conducting his work because of the same sooth.
how great would it be the opportunity to listen to each music piece where the conductor was always the composer!! the music will sound exactly as they want it to be played!
Not always. There are great conductors who surprise the composers about their own pieces. Bernstein surprised Stravinsky with his performance of Symphony of Psalms. All Stravinsky said afterwards was... "Wow"
Grew up listening to Stravinsky. My parents were Jazz musicians and exposed their kids to all fine music, especially impressionistic. Haven’t heard the piece in a while. I now will be haunted by it in my dreams. ( in a good way)
That's the benchmark on how this score ought to sound: mimicking the sounds of nature, onomatopoeic, percussive and raw; the stacatto finale greatly surprised me, for that's not how other conductors are used to making it sound. Truly an image of nature through sounds.
I love how staccato and percussive it is too! I've never heard it like this. Stravinsky conducted another orchestra and it's even more percussive. At first, I was taken aback but LOVE IT.
Stravinsky conducted this work in New Zealand while on the same tour. It was unforgettable although the New Zealand National Orchestra was less skilled than it is today.
What a joy! What a treasure for everyone there, onstage and in the audience. Stravinsky gave such deep and appreciative bows to both them and his musicians. And their great, sensitive emotional playing seemed to come from within themselves and the fact that they were playing for the composer himself of this great piece, because his direction was pretty straightforward and stoic. Emotions were high on both sides of the podium, i expect. So beautiful. Thank you for posting 👏🏆🎶
During practice with NHK Symphony Orchestra, Stravinsky requested to change some of the Parts and red penciled the Scores. The work is never ending as a composer.
I first heard it when I was 14. I loved it from the first day. My favorite version was a selfmade shortwave recording with a good undisturbed sound reception, except a continuosly swelling loudness as if the music were naturally reflected by moving swelling clouds. It actually was an enhancement. May be it was 1958 and came from Japan?
This is great. Interesting to compare this to the Royal Philharmonic recording from about 10 years later. The tempo is just slightly faster, and the bassoon player has a quicker vibrato - more tightly wound, but GREAT playing in both cases. Nobody conducts this piece even close to as good. Most conductors make the whole end section from the french horn melody of the final statement into a schmaltzy showpiece, with overly wrought emotion and then overly dramatic tempo moves in the ending section. I don't understand why they don't follow the cues of the COMPOSER.
Enorme, leggendario ed insostituibile! È necessario assolutamente che io esprima quanto segue: soltanto quando Stravinsky dirige le sue opere, viene fuori meravigliosamente quel profondo, terribile "nero e tenebroso" fuoco, tipico delle sue magnifiche composizioni!!!
Thank you so much for posting this!!! I love that the sound quality is less high def, and more primitive, for lack a better way to put it. I could easy see this becoming one of my favorite recordings of this version!
Amazing. Thank you for posting this jewel of historical performance. On a picky, unimportant, note: piccolo has a C natural as its second note in Ronde de princesses, not a C# as is the case in this performance. 16:38
Yes, the sound recording is poor, and yes, Columbia’s three LP set of The Firebird, Petruska and The Rite of Spring conducted by Stravinsky is outstanding. But the historical context of this stunning performance is uniquely poignant. Mankind is capable of so much beauty and such horrible nightmares. Moments like this one offer hope.
What "type" of music is this? It sounds like stuff you hear in old movies and old cartoons. Is there a name for this style of music, other than just classical music? Is it choreographic music?
This type of Music flourished in the 20th century. Its atonality, the concept of having no tonal Centre - which basically means its neither major or minor (happy or sad). Its oftem used to convey tension or to create more atmosphere or word painting (replicating actions through music). Many film composers, especially John Williams, were heavily inspired by this music writing
From 25:25 on, it became clear to me that Igor must have been a staunch YES fan! :-) Listen here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RZq2JYYKzmo.html
If only thr sound quality were up to snuff.... And i dont wanna hear it. I have 78s from 1939 that sound as good as this, and more then a few that are better, from 20 years later. By 59 , audio was arguably better then itis today , let alone this damn bad. Glad to read here its a powerful performance , as i wouldnt bother otherwise... Does anyone know the technical details of this ? Sounds like an optical sountrack on film , grains high , but no ticks or pops so if its a 78 trans its immaculate , but the pitch of the grain is too high/fast for a 33...optical I'd bet . ...
It's a magnetic track from the video I'd say, so it hasn't been designed for the audio experience it's be shot on videotape probably for a live tv broadcast, where the sound quality doesn't really matter for people listening on their mono tvs.
Hey, to each their own, my friend. There’s no doubt that the quality is “poor”, and definitely not something you’d find on any record from that era. I actually quite like the primitive audio, but I’m quite fond of a lo-fo aesthetic on a lot of music. If this were the only available performance of this conducted version conducted by him, then I’d be a bit bummed, but I’m almost certain that it isn’t, and anyway, I have dozens of options for high quality recordings of this composition, so I quite like this for a unique sound experience. I can see why many people wouldn’t enjoy it though.
Master FOKINE's choreography to this music was exceptional!! For why copyrights and Romantic esthetics matter to this musical ballet please visit the thinkers at www.aynrand.org.
Stick technique is not unimportant but it isn't what makes a conductor great. If a conductor has a good sense of how to interpret the music and is able to communicate that to the players in the rehearsal, then he can wave his ass at the orchestra for the performance for all we care, and the result will still sound much better than a conductor with more polished stick technique but without the musicality.
