Igor Stravinsky - Orpheus, ballet (1/3)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Orpheus, ballet (1948)

Scene I
- Lento sostenuto
- Air de Danse
- Dance of the Angel of Death
- Interlude

Scene II
- Dance of the Furies
- Air de Danse
- Interlude
- Air de Danse
- Pas d'action
- Pas de Deux
- Interlude
- Pas d'action

Scene III
- Apotheosis

Orchestra of St Luke's
Robert Craft

Category:

Music

Tags:

• igor
• stavinsky
• stravinskij
• strawinsky
• orpheus
• eurydike
• ades
• ballet
• greek
• myth
• neoclassicism

[acrillon1]

OMG! I love so much the beginning!!! it is soooo beautiful and AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for share it!

[Epogdous]

The beginning is ravishing. The descending scales played by the harp give the impression of Orpheus descending to Hell. Stravinsky was a real genius.

[lowgrau]

@Epogdous u sure about that hell thing?

[Epogdous]

@lowgrau Actually I've never seen the original choreography. I don't know what really happens in the opening scene. Anyway those descending harpeggios always made me think of Orpheus descending to the Underworld.

[runupahill1]

Thank you epogdous. This is one of my favorites Stravinsky ballet works. I enjoy it much more than his warhorses. I wonder if the recording Stravinsky made of it with the Chicago Symphony is floating around anywhere.

[Epogdous]

It's a very rare recording. Maybe the last edition was that of CBS in 1982. It was part of the collection "Igor Stravinsky: The Recorded Legacy" (CBS GM3 I, 2/82). You should look for it in second-hand stores or in auction catalogs. Good luck!

[wojciech29]

That record was conducted by Craft? I donť want to believe that, it's so fast and that ruined whole song.

[iamalittlespy]

@MuseDuCafe Thanks for the insightful comment. I definitely hear a lot of Tchaikovsky in the faster part of this movement after about 3:00. I'll have to check out Baiser de la fee.

[MuseDuCafe]

@iamalittlespy Tchaikovsky was loved and admired by Stravinsky. You can hear it almost everywhere in that 'Russian' way of handling woodwinds. The most direct "hommage" is his Baiser de la fee, using Tchaikovsky material (only if never orchestrated) and generating Stravinsky's own 'Tchaikovsky-like' music as well. A classic story ballet via Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow (or Ice) Queen. Check it out, another lovely score.

[MuseDuCafe]

How many pieces, for even a handful of bars, force a spontaneous moan out of you because their beauty is so great is is almost painful to hear them? Certainly this, Apollo, and The Rake's Progress are his most ravishingly (sorry Epogdous, but there seems to be none other more appropriate word) 'beautiful' scores from his neoclassical period. After forty years from my first exposure to those opening measure in 6/4, I still 'melt' when I hear it.

[lowgrau]

@Epogdous there are other versions, particularly of the beginning, its like a flower opening in the morning, perhaps in the woods, imagine a city waking up

[lowgrau]

the intro is way cool

[lowgrau]

the beginning is so so, i can't get past it

[FenderRhodesService]

Besides the harmonies , colours , the counterpoint is also pretty nifty sometimes , I think. One of the Stravinsky must haves. I like bassoons trios also.