Stravinsky's long, varied life is mirrored by a rich and
diverse musical output, whose inner strength and consistency
survived extreme outward changes of style. He was born at
Oranienbaum in Russia, the son of a bass singer at the St
Petersburg Opera: Russian opera and ballet were the musical
backdrop to his childhood. He read law at St Petersburg University
from 1901 to 1905, but focused his main attention on composing,
taking private lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1906 he married
his cousin, Katerina, and over the next couple of years they had a
son and daughter.
Two works from this period, Scherzo fantastique and
Fireworks, impressed the impresario Diaghilev, who
commissioned a large-scale ballet, The firebird, premiered
in Paris in 1910. Although Stravinsky's score for this Russian
fairy tale is a direct descendant of the music familiar from his early years, especially Rimsky-Korsakov, its unmistakable
brilliance and authority won the composer international renown.
Stravinsky brought his family to Western Europe and enhanced his
reputation "with two further ballets for Diaghilev. In the first,
Petrushka, set during St Petersburg's Shrovetide Fair, the
composer brought to the misfortunes of the central character, a
puppet, a new acerbic brittleness that he pushed further still in
The rite of spring. One of the most momentous and
uncompromising works of the twentieth century, this portrayal of
sacrificial rituals of pagan Russia introduced a level of
dissonance and rhythmic innovation that outraged the first-night audience in Paris in 1913, provoking wild protest
and disorder.
Switzerland, which had been a frequent haunt of the Stravinskys,
became their home during World War I. Russian folk material
continued to inspire Stravinsky in such works as Les noces
(The wedding) and Renard (Fox), but an increasing leanness
and economy of style appear in The soldier's tale of 1918,
echoing the straitened circumstances of the time. The work uses
only a handful of performers.
After the war Diaghilev was again the catalyst for a major
change in Stravinsky's style. He suggested that Stravinsky adapt
some short pieces by die Baroque composer Pergolesi, and
Stravinsky's enthusiasm for the project not only produced a
sparkling masterpiece in the ballet Pulcinella, but
initiated a long period of "neoclassical" works that revived
musical models and precepts from the past, often in a spirit of
ironic affection — Bach's Brandenburg concertos m the
concerto Dumbarton Oaks, Mozartian comic opera in The
rake's progress, and the oratorios of Handel in
Oedipus
Rex.
From 1920 to 1939 Stravinsky lived in France. Russian themes
still influenced such works as the short opera Mavra
(1921-2), based on Pushkin, and the Symphony of psalms
(1930), with its echoes of Russian Orthodox ritual. Meanwhile
Stravinsky's growing careers as conductor and pianist were
reflected in works such as the Concerto for piano and wind
instruments and the Capriccio for piano and orchestra,
both written for himself to play.
Oedipus Rex and Persephone, both novel variations on
the cantata form, were premiered in Paris in 1927 and 1934, but
commissions increasingly came from America. Following the deaths
of his wife and mother in 1939 Stravinsky embarked for New York,
and the United States became his home for the rest of his life. He
was joined in 1940 by his longtime mistress, Vera Sudeikina; they
married and settled in Hollywood.
Apart from such bizarre initial commissions as a ballet for
young elephants (Circus polka), the 1940s saw the
magisterial Symphony in three movements, the ballet
Orpheus, and the opera The rake's progress. In the
1950s Stravinsky's style underwent a final transformation,
precipitated by the rediscovery of Webern's music and the
techniques of Schoenberg: Agon, Canticum sacrum, and
Threni show this change of direction. His last works are short
and austere, culminating in the Requiem Canticles of 1966.
Stravinsky's health eventually failed; he died in New York in 1971
and was buried in Venice, near the grave of his collaborator and
the commissioner of some of his greatest works, Diaghilev.
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