#ted libbey

Igor Stravinsky: Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: The Firebird (1962) [Composed 1909-10]

Igor Stravinsky lived until the ripe old age of 88 -- long enough to enjoy the rare opportunity of conducting his own work for releases such as this, but he was still a young man in his 20s, and a relative unknown, when he composed the score for his first major ballet, The Firebird.

Stravinsky also benefited from the sloth of an older, more established compatriot, Anatoly Lyadov, to steal the commission offered by impatient impresario Sergei Diaghilev, and the hungry, younger composer duly finished The Firebird in time for the 1910 Paris season, in which it was performed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company to sizable acclaim.

Influenced by his one-time tutor, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (specifically his The Golden Cockerel), Stravinsky based his score on Michel Fokine’s innovative choreography and a Russian fairy tale about a magical, burning bird that is both a blessing and a harbinger of doom to he who captures it.

Let’s see if I can keep this short and coherent ... 

While hunting in the forest, Prince Ivan strays into the magical realm of the evil Koschei the Immortal, ensnares the Firebird but spares her life in exchange for an enchanted feather he can use to summon her when in dire need.

Ivan soon takes her up on this, when he bumps into Koschei and falls in love with one of 13 princesses under his spell; the Firebird bewitches Koschei and his monsters while Ivan destroys a magic egg that ensures his immortality, thus freeing his minions and princesses.

As for Stravinsky’s score, it effectively conveyed an aura of dreamlike fantasy and dark enchantment (backed by the colorful costume designs, two of which are depicted on the cover), using chromaticism to represent the story’s supernatural elements and diatonic harmonies for its human protagonists.

All of which is Greek to me, but I’m just paraphrasing directly from noted critic Ted Libbey’s essential NPR Guide to Building a Classical Music Collection, where Ted also asserts that the work “contained effects of such incandescence and power that it set the musical establishment on its ear.”

I’d say so, because The Firebird gave Stravinsky his professional breakthrough and initiated his productive partnership with promoter and financier Diaghilev that yielded such future triumphs as Petrushka, Pulcinella, Les Noces and my personal favorite, The Rite of Spring.

I’ll finish by pointing out that this particular recording presents the complete ballet, running some 44 minutes, with its original 1910 Orchestration; but I personally prefer a more frequently recorded revision, about half as long, specifically this recording of Leonard Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Having said that, I’d recommend this LP for no other reason than the rear-sleeve liner notes penned by Stravinsky himself, which are full of personal recollections, just as often arrogant as self-effacing, about the creative process, performances, and encounters with other celebs of the day.