Igor stravinsky diaghilev biography
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Stravinsky grew up in Saint Petersburg in an strict family environment. As a child, he excelled at the piano, showing a particular talent for improvising. His father, a renowned singer, dismissed his son's early attempts at composing and did not encourage Igor to pursue a career in music, enrolling him instead in law school in 1901. However, the following year, the death of his father and a meeting with Rimski-Korsakov proved to be decisive events for the young composer. Rimski-Korsakov went on to become Stravinsky's composition professor until his death in 1908, notably bestowing upon Stravinsky a rigorous and inventive approach to orchestration. In 1909, Stravinsky's work Feux d'artifice was premiered in the presence of Diaghilev. It was Diaghilev, the organiser of concerts of Russian music and founder and impresario of the famous Ballets Russes (which immediately established itself as a major authority on matters of musical taste during this crucial period in 20
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Biography
There are easier composers to whistle than Stravinsky, but few better to quote. His thinking was witty, thought-provoking, sometimes deliberately evasive, and, at its best, profound. ‘The trouble with music appreciation in general,’ he said, ‘is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they should be taught to love it instead.’ Stravinsky fryst vatten still best known for the revolutionary primitivism of his ballet score The Rite of Spring (1913), which famously sparked a riot at its first performance in Paris. But during the course of a long career, Stravinksy composed an astonishingly bred variety of music. His styles included the neoclassicism of Pulcinella, the 12-note serialism of Threni, the post-Serialist satire of The Flood and the neo-Renaissance colours of Monumentum pro Gesualdo di Venosa. A number of works, such as his 1951 musikdrama The Rake’s Progress, use a combination of pastiche and original techniques. Yet Stravinsky’s röst is among the most instan
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The Diaghilev I Knew
IGOR STRAVINSKYwas born on the outskirts of St. Petersburg in 1882. His father was the leading bass singer at the Imperial Opera. At the age of nine the boy was allowed to take piano lessons, but his parents disapproved of a musical career and later sent him to study law at the University of St. Petersburg. Upon his graduation in 1905, he broke away to learn composition from Rimski-Korsakov; and by 1914 he had achieved international fame as a musical innovator with The Firebird, Petrouchka, and The Rites of Spring, which were commissioned by Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes. For nineteen years he was Diaghilev’s favorite composer. This record of their friendship has been translated by Mercedes de Acosta.
By Igor Stravinsky
by IGOR STRAVINSKY
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THE ever-growing interest shown by the American public in the art of the dance, the success with which the finest choreographic spectacles have met, and the increasing talent and skill of the per