Sunday Classics preview: In which we ease our way into Stravinsky's "Firebird"

Pierre Boulez conducts Stravinsky's Fireworks, composed two years before The Firebird.

by Ken

I don't remember what exactly got me to thinking about the first of the three great ballets Stravinsky composed in the breakthrough years of 1910-13, The Firebird. It was the composer's own 1961 recording of the complete ballet that I targeted, and while I've never stinted in my enthusiasm for those composer-conducted recordings of his "basic" ballets (which for many happy years in the LP era filled a pair of wonderful three-for-the-price-of-two boxes), I still wasn't prepared for how thoroughly I enjoyed hearing the Firebird again. So that's where we're headed Sunday.

We're going to hear a couple of luscious chunks from that recording, but first I think we should hear the composer's own recording of Fireworks.

STRAVINSKY: Fireworks

Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded in New York, Dec. 17, 1963

Now we're going to here the wonderfully atmospheric opening sequence of The Firebird, and then the soaringly songful "Khovorod (Round Dance) of the Princesses."

STRAVINSKY: The Firebird:
Opening Sequence --
Introduction; Kashchei's Enchanted Garden;
The Firebird enters, pursued by Ivan Tsarevich;
Dance of the Firebird

Khorovod (Round Dance) of the Princesses

Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded in Hollywood, Jan. 23-25, 1961


IN TOMORROW NIGHT'S PREVIEW --

More Firebird (including one of music's all-time great conclusions) and another Stravinsky miniature bonus, en route to Sunday's post, when it's all Firebird.

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