STRAVINSKY: The Firebird Suite (1945)

by Noel Morris

Igor Stravinsky
Born June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia
Died April 6, 1971, in New York City

The Firebird Suite (1945 revision)
Composed in 1910
Premiered in 1910 in Paris, France
Last performed by the Utah Symphony in April 2006 with Larry Rachleff conducting (though the 1919 revision has been performed more frequently–most recently in January 2023 with Fawzi Haimor conducting)

Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird is a fairytale about 13 captive princesses, forced to dance and swoon under the spell of the evil sorcerer Kaschei. Along comes Prince Ivan, who wields the feather of the Firebird; he uses it to summon the bird’s power and lure Kaschei and friends into an exhausting dance. When the ghoulish retinue falls into a deep slumber, Ivan smashes the egg containing Kaschei’s soul, freeing the maidens—including his lost love.

What to Listen for

Igor Stravinsky was a master orchestrator. Notice his unconventional bowings, including col legno—smacking the strings with the wood of the bow, or ponticello—bowing close to the bridge for a grittier sound. Stravinsky also asks the flutes to flutter tongue, produced by rolling an “R” into the instrument.

The Backstory

On the eve of its premiere, the composer of The Firebird was a no-name, a 28-year-old stranger in the cultural capital of the world. Two days later, the skinny, bespectacled Russian was the toast of Paris. Ironically, Igor Stravinsky, the composer who later made the cover of Time magazine and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, hadn’t even been the first choice for the job.

In 1909, things Russian were trendy, owing to the ambitions of the impresario Sergei Diaghilev. Fleeing the 1905 Russian Revolution, Diaghilev made it his mission to promote and profit from Russian culture in the French capital, presenting concerts, operas, and an art exhibition. Having that multidisciplinary experience would prove invaluable when he hit upon his greatest achievement: the Ballets Russes. Using scores by composers such as Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Diaghilev engaged the finest choreographers, artists, and dancers to dazzle the French. Paintings by his set and costume designer, Leon Bakst, began appearing in Paris galleries, and actresses solicited his dress designs. Conspicuously, there was one facet of Diaghilev’s productions that had underwhelmed the avant-garde: the music—none of it had been original. Diaghilev made up his mind to change that.

For the coming season, he envisioned a new ballet titled The Firebird, based on a scenario drawn from various Russian fairy tales. He hired the Russian composer Nikolai Tcherepnin, but the deal fell apart. He then turned to Anatoly Lyadov, Alexander Glazunov, and Nikolay Sokolov—all declined. Six months before rehearsals, the impresario offered the job to Stravinsky, who later wrote, “I remember the day Diaghilev telephoned me to say ‘Go ahead,’ and my telling him I already had.”

Although this would be his first large-scale work, Stravinsky was no stranger to the theater. The son of the famous bass, Fyodor Stravinsky, the opera house had been his playground. To his dismay, his parents insisted that he study law rather than music. And yet it was his father’s stature that enabled him to gain access to one of the most influential Russian composers of his time: Rimsky-Korsakov. Stravinsky asked the older composer for advice about his compositions. When his father died in 1902, Igor
became a “Rimsky” disciple.

The Music

“Russian legends have as heroes characters that are simple, naive, sometimes even frankly stupid, devoid of all malice,” wrote Stravinsky. “And it is they who are always victorious over characters that are clever, artful, complex, cruel, and powerful.” He goes on to say that Ivan defeats Kaschei “because he yielded to pity, a wholly Christian notion, which dominates the imagination and the ideas of the Russian people.”

Following his teacher’s lead, Stravinsky tapped into Russian nationalism. One of the most prominent tunes in the ballet, the “Round Dance of the Princesses”, is taken from Rimsky-Korsakov’s compilation 100 Russian Folk Songs. It follows that Stravinsky used folk songs for human characters and chromatic music for supernatural characters. Stravinsky’s opulent orchestration leans heavily upon the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov.

Stravinsky wrote The Firebird at a dacha belonging to the older composer. Recalling the vast fields of snow, he wrote, “Andrei Rimsky-Korsakov (son of the composer) was with me at the time, and he often was during the following months; because of this, The Firebird is dedicated to him.”