Igor Stravinsky—Beethoven of our time
Editor's note: The University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra will perform Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" as part of its concert at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in University Theatre.
By JIM BARNES
Kansan Correspondent
Paris, May 29, 1913: Concert-goers filter in to the Paris Opera House, awaiting the world premiere of a work by a brash new Russian composer who has garnered the city's musical attention with his first two ballets performed by the Ballet Russe.
In the pit, an oversized orchestra tunes its "A." Behind the normal ballet string section sits a huge wind and percussion section. The lights dim and applause greets the conductor entering the pit.
And now, the curtain. Drab, pagan-like scenery fills the stage; the orchestra begins, but the music is thin for an opening—just a solo bassoon whose thin, eery sounds conjure an almost perverted feeling in the audience's minds.
Soon other double reeds enter.
Are they all playing in the same kev? Is this music correct?
Catcalls echo from the balcony and student section; soon there is a bonafide "Boo!" followed by many more.
Camille Saint-Saens rises to leave in disgust and people jump to their feet to scream insults at the stage. Claude Debussey stands to plead with the audience to be still so the performance can be heard. Maurice Ravel suddenly leaps from his seat and cries "Genius!" above the cacophony in the hall.
The police rush in, while, at a corner of the stage, a slender young Russian with thick spectacles and a stubby moustache appears.
"Go to hell!" he screams directly at the audience. Retreating backstage, he leaps out a side window and escapes down the alley to avoid his "fans."
So went the world premiere of one of the monumental compositions of the 20th century, "The Rite of Spring," by the same controversial composer who hurled expletives at his audience that spring night in Paris—Igor Stravinsky.
"The Rite of Spring," along with Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun," was instrumental in breaking off the style of the 19th century composers and in forcing the search
which led to what we now call modern music.
Igor Fyodorovitch Stravinsky was born June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, Russia. His father was the principal bass singer in the St. Petersburg Opera. Many musical celebrities of the 1880's and 1890's were house guests of the Stravinskys and Igor absorbed the musical atmosphere with verve.
He began piano at 9 years of age and soon was studying full scores of new operas and symphonies—more regularly, in fact, than his studies at school, of which he later remarked, "I was singularly inept."
At 17, he began, through a bit of hook-and-crook by his father, his study under Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, one of the most noted composers of the time. As a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky composed his first two nearly mature works, the "Symphony in E Flat" and "Scherzo Fantastique." A third piece dedicated to Rimsky-Korsakov, "Fireworks," became Stravinsky's springboard to success. "Scherzo Fantastique" and "Fireworks" were played at a concert in St. Petersburg shortly after Rimsky-Korsakov's death and were considered mild successes.
But there was an impressario in the audience at that performance who liked what he had heard and thought that he had a place in his ballet troupe for the young Stravinsky. Serge Diageev, the impresario, soon commissioned a full ballet from Stravinsky called the "Firebird." When Stravinsky played the first draft of it to Diagiliev on the piano and a friend, Diagiliev said to his friend, "Remember this young man. He is about to become world famous!"
Diagliev was right. "The Firebird" was a sensation when it was premiered June 15, 1910, by the Russian Ballet Russe, and the suites derived from it by the composer have long since become favorites of concert audiences around the world. Although his music vaguely like that of Rimsky-Korsakov and the Russian Peter Tchaikovskiy, Stravinsky has begun an original style that would sweep the world with its stark, brutal, ultra-rhythmic style sound.
Stravinsky overnight became a world figure and composed success after success, not only ballets, but such diverse endeavors as chamber music and opera. The t tumultuous premiere of "The Rite of Spring" was not, in the end, a failure for Stravinsky; rather, it made him at the very least infamous. People didn't necessarily like what they heard, but they listened; and this is a much more enviable position for a serious composer.
Igor Stravinsky
The three early ballets, "The Firebird," "Petrouchka," and "The Rite of Spring," are still Stravinka's most famous works. And of these three, the best known and most performed is the suite from "The Firebird." It was the fifth most frequently-played composition by major U.S. symphony orchestras in 1969. No matter how many times one hears this work, it never loses its flash, color and subtle beauty.
'Riding Hood' appears as classical opera parody
Stravinsky proceeded from this early period of "primitivism" to the style of "Neo-Classicism," the bland, simple-yet-complex style that marked his "L'Histoire du Soldat," the "Octet for Winds," the "Symphony of Psalms," the "Symphony in C" and his best-known opera, "The Rake's Progress" (performed at KU in 1968).
Styron honored
NEW YORK (UPI) - The Howells Medal, the nation's highest award for fiction, was given Wednesday to 44-year-old William Styron for his controversial novel "The Confessions of Nat Turner." The award is given only once every five years by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the most distinguished work of fiction produced in that period. Styron's best-seller, based on a pre-civil war uprising of southern Negroes, was published in 1967.
"Little Red Riding Hood," a satirical operetta for children, will be presented March 14 and 15 at the Westminster Center. Written by Seymour Barab, the operetta is a satire on stories and plays which talk down to children. It is a parody on classical opera style.
Mar. 12
1970 KANSAN 5
He is notorious among publishers for driving a hard bargain. They feel he would write anything "if paid enough." In fact, he once wrote a ballet for dancing elephants for the Barn- and Baily circus.
Mrs. Bill Meikle, who has had experience with childrens' theatre and community theatres in Texas, is directing the production. She helped produce the operetta when it was performed by the Musicians Club of Midland. Tex. "It was such a success" she said, "that the troupe presented it on a tour of Texas grade schools."
Mrs. Meikle said college students would probably enjoy the play because of its satirical quality.
The cast for the production is made up of music education and theater voice majors at KU.
Stravinsky has an odd sense of humor and has said, "My music is best understood by children and animals." This complex man has succeeded by contradicting the norm. He always could see the need for change in his field and did more than talk about it; he changed it.
It seems to this writer that one factor places Stravinsky at the fore of all his contemporaries: He has the power to set the mood of a composition from the very first sound and, regardless of whether it is an early ballet or one of his recent works, the listener feels confident that he is in the grip of a master.
Stravinsky is undoubtedly the
Beethoven, the Brahms, of our time. He is not just a gifted craftsman, but a liberator of musical feeling and thought.
R TECHNICOLOR
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Eve. 7:00 and 9:25
Mat. Sat. - Sun. 2:00
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