Stravinsky was born west of Saint Petersburg, Russia into a musical family.  His father was an opera singer in the Kiev Opera.  At the age of eight, Stravinsky attended a performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty, which sparked his interest in music and ballet.  Shortly after, he began studies in piano, theory, and composition.  He attended the University of Saint Petersburg with the instruction from his parents to study law and philosophy.  He took the required courses, but also took instruction in music.  His father died soon after his first year, which freed Stravinsky to drop the law coursework.  Stravinsky also met Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, the son of the famous composer.  The two developed a friendship that led to Stravinsky staying with the family on vacations.  Eventually Stravinsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov developed a close relationship where Stravinsky revered the elder composer as a mentor and father figure.

Rimsky-Korsakov not only taught the young composer, he also helped secure performances of Stravinsky’s works.  Attending the 1909 premiere of Stravinsky’s Scherzo Fantastique, the impresario Serge Diaghilev (1872-1929) was impressed with the young composer and approached him about a full-length ballet on the subject of the Russian folklore of the firebird.  The work was premiered during the 1910 ballet season and was a dazzling success.  The score is rich with late Romanticism harmonies and sweeping melodies which led to more ballet commissions such as Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. 

The Suite from the full ballet is one of four versions of the original score.  One is a piano reduction of the full score, and three orchestral suites including different portions of the ballet.  Each suite was arranged by Stravinsky.  The score performed on this concert is the 1919 version which originally had errors in the first publication that were not corrected for several decades.  This suite version is the most widely performed of the three and includes the spectacular buildup to the finish with the grand finale.

-Program Notes by Kevin Lodge