Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky (Ee-gor Struh-vinn-skee) was born just outside of St. Petersburg, then the capital of Imperial Russia. His father was a singer with the Kyiv (Kiev, Ukraine) Opera and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. His mother came from a family of high-ranking government officials in Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). Stravinsky attended school in St. Petersburg and was often a lonely child, never having many close friends. He began studying music at a young age, taking lessons in piano and theory and attempting his own compositions. By fifteen, Stravinsky was an accomplished pianist and was arranging works for performance. Even though his musical talent was obvious and his father was a musician, his parents expected Stravinsky to become a lawyer. He enrolled in law school at the University of St. Petersburg in 1901. However he was an unenthusiastic student. In the four years he was enrolled, he attended less than fifty classes. In 1902, Stravinsky made a trip to Heidelberg, Germany where he met Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the most famous Russian composer of the day. Rimsky-Korsakov suggested that instead of enrolling in music school, he would provide Stravinsky with private composition lessons. Stravinsky eventually received a half-diploma from law school, but he had found his path and began twice weekly lessons with Rimsky-Korsakov, whom he viewed as a father-figure after the death of his own father.  Stravinsky married his wife, Katya, in 1905 and the couple soon had two children. Meanwhile, Stravinsky was busy writing his own music and his first two orchestral works were performed in St. Petersburg in 1909. Serge Diaghilev, a music impresario was in the audience. He was impressed by Stravinsky’s work and commissioned Stravinsky to write a ballet to be presented in a series of performances showcasing Russian art and culture to be performed in Paris. Stravinsky and his family had built a summer home in Ukraine, near his wife’s family’s home. They spent almost every summer there until 1914 and Stravinsky composed many of his early works there, including the ballet for Diaghilev, The Firebird. His ballet premiered in June 1910 and made Stravinsky famous almost overnight. His family, which now had two more children, joined him in Paris and instead of going back home to Russia, the family decided to move to Switzerland. For the next four years, the Stravinsky family spent their winters in Switzerland and summers in Ukraine. Stravinsky wrote two more ballets to be performed in Paris, Petrushka in 1911 and The Rite of Spring in 1913. That fall the family went to their home in Switzerland where Stravinsky completed his first opera. In July 1914, Europe was on the brink of war. Stravinsky made a quick trip to their home in Ukraine to gather their belongings. He made it back to Switzerland before World War I started. Between the war and the subsequent revolution in Russia, it was almost fifty years before Stravinsky returned to Russia again.  

The years following World War I were financially difficult for Stravinsky. The newly formed Soviet government did not follow the same rules about paying him when his works were performed in the Soviet Union. Several friends donated money to the family so that they could pay the bills. In 1920, the family moved to Paris, for a while living in the home of fashion designer Coco Chanel until they could find a home of their own. He began working for a French piano company, Pleyel. They provided Stravinsky with a regular salary and an office so he could work. He also arranged several of his most famous works for their player pianos, often making use of all eighty-eight keys on the instrument in ways that no person would ever be able to play. The family became French citizen in 1934. However, most of their years in Paris were difficult financially and marked by tragedy. In late 1938, Stravinsky’s daughter died, followed by his wife only three months later. Stravinsky himself was ill with tuberculosis and spent five months in the hospital. While he was ill, his mother died as well. After these tragic events and with Europe once again at war, Stravinsky made a fresh start by moving to the United States in 1939 to teach at Harvard and to complete his Symphony in C for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Shortly after arriving in the United States, his friend, Vera, an artist and painter, joined him. The two were married in 1940. Although the Stravinskys became United States citizens in 1945, they found it difficult to assimilate to their new country. They moved to Los Angeles and found a circle of friends that included other immigrant artists. He continued to compose, writing more ballets and symphonies, many of which were influenced by Greek mythology. He also taught a generation of American composers. In 1962, nearly fifty years later, Stravinsky returned to Russia to conduct six concerts in Moscow and Leningrad (formerly St. Petersburg). He was also able to meet the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev and several prominent Soviet composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich. Stravinsky and his wife relocated to New York City in 1969 where he worked on an orchestration of two of Johann Sebastian Bach’s preludes from The Well-Tempered Clavier. He started feeling ill in March 1971 and spent ten days in the hospital before being allowed to go home. Although he started feeling better, his condition worsened, and he died in early April. After a funeral in New York City, he was buried in a cemetery on an island in Venice, Italy, not far from the grave of Serge Diaghilev who first introduced Stravinsky’s music to the world. 

The Firebird tells the story of Prince Ivan. During a hunting trip in the forest, the prince accidentally wanders into the kingdom of Kastchei, an immortal sorcerer who is kept alive by storing his soul in a magic egg that he keeps hidden away. As Prince Ivan wanders through the woods, he sees the Firebird. He chases it, eventually capturing it and makes plans to kill the bird. However, she pleads for mercy and he spares her life. In thanks, she gives the prince one of her feathers, telling him to use it when he is serious danger and that she will come to his aid. As Prince Ivan continues to explore the enchanted realm, he finds thirteen princesses who are under the control of Kastchei. Ivan falls in love with one of them and wants to free them all. Ivan confronts Katschei, who summons his evil minions to destroy Ivan. In his time of need, Ivan summons the Firebird. She swoops in, bewitching the monsters into performing a frenetic dance. After expending so much energy, Kastchei and the monsters fall into a deep sleep. Following directions from the Firebird, Ivan finds where Kastchei has hidden the egg and destroys it. This breaks the spell that had controlled the princesses, the monsters disappear, and with one final flourish of the Firebird’s music, Ivan and his princess live happily ever after. The music is filled with exotic color and sweeping movement that helps us imagine the Firebird soaring in to rescue Prince Ivan and the exuberant moments after Kastchei is defeated and the spell is broken.