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Classical Communiqué Classical blog

Discussing the way classical music touches the mind and the heart.

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Symphonic Sidebars: Igor Stravinsky’s Fantastic First

  •  Kent Teeters 
Monday, January 26, 2015
Wiki Commons

Photo portrait of Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer.

Wiki Commons

As a fan of those large scale compositions called “symphonies,” you have arrived at a crossroads. You can easily identify Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony by the first four notes (da-da-da-DAAAAH!), you are familiar with a handful of tuneful symphonies by Haydn and Mozart, you’re thrilled every time you hear the “fate motif” hammered out in Tchaikovsky’s Fourth, and maybe you recently bought a recording of the four symphonies by Brahms.

Congratulations! You’re well on your way to becoming an aficionado of the symphony. So, now what? Which road should you take on your symphonic journey?

You need not worry, since there are no wrong choices and any direction you chose will likely lead you to some extraordinary music! This new series called “Symphonic Sidebars” will give you a good place to start. It’s a guide to symphonies that are somewhat out of the mainstream, possibly from some composers whose music you might not have heard before.

To begin, let’s briefly explore a symphony from a composer you are more likely to associate with ballet music: Igor Stravinsky.

Three years before he composed the ballet score for “The Firebird” and a mere six years before he turned the musical world upside down with the ground-breaking sounds of “The Rite of Spring,” Stravinsky wrote a rather conservative, romantic symphony.  It is his first published work and his first work for full orchestra.  It also could easily be mistaken as having been written by Stravinsky’s mentor at the time, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.  In fact, Stravinsky dedicated his Symphony in E-flat major, opus 1, “to my dear teacher.”  Some of the muscular sounds might remind you of another famous Russian composer, Peter Tchaikovsky. Yet, in spite of its conservative, romantic and very Russian style, and especially if you have heard some of his famous ballet scores, you can hear in this energetic symphony that Stravinsky has already begun to stretch his wings, and will soon soar beyond the romantic period and into the 20th century.

PURCHASE THE RECORDING

Recommended: Stravinsky – Symphonies, Fairy’s Kiss, Ode. Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Alexander Gibson, conductor. Chandos Records, CD #2408

    Related Stories

  • Symphonic Sidebars: A Third Symphony From A “Rodney Dangerfield” Composer

    Thursday, March 26, 2015
    Next up in our series on extraordinary symphonies, Franz Berwald's Symphony Number Three.

 Symphonic SidebarsStravinsky

Kent Teeters

Former Classical Music Coordinator and Host

Kent was Capital Public Radio's Classical Music Coordinator and morning host through the fall of 2015.   Read Full Bio 

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