PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Stravinsky, Igor (1882-1971)Other forms

Fechas de existencia:

Lomonósov (San Petersburgo, Rusia) 1882-06-17 - New York 1971-04-06

History:

Composer, pianist, and conductor of Russian origin with French and American nationality.

He was born on June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum (St. Petersburg, Russia). He was the son of opera singer Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky and pianist and singer Anna Kirillovna Kholodovskaya. He was married to Katerina Nossenko, his cousin, with whom he had four children.

He was taught piano by Leokadia Aleksandrovna Kashperova, and harmony and counterpoint by Fedir Akimenko and Vasily Kalafati. In St. Petersburg, he attended the renowned Gurevich School; later, he enrolled at the University of St. Petersburg to study law. From 1904 to 1906, he took private lessons in orchestration and composition, twice a week, from composer Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov, who oversaw his first compositions. He dedicated his "Sinfonía en Mi bemol" (1907) to him, which premiered in St. Petersburg on January 22, 1908. Shortly after, his song cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, "Le faune et la bergère" (1908), based on a text by Pushkin, achieved great success.

On February 6, 1909, he premiered "Scherzo fantastique" (1907-1908), a piece that was well-received by Serge Diaghilev, the impresario who commissioned the ballet "El pájaro de fuego" (1909-1910), which premiered with choreography by Mikhail Fokin. This work marked the beginning of a successful collaboration between Diaghilev and Stravinsky. The ballet "Petrushka" was presented with great success in Paris on June 13, 1911, also with Fokin as choreographer. Two years later, on May 29, 1913, he premiered "La consagración de la primavera" (1911-1913) in Paris, again with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and with choreography by Vaclav Nijinsky. In 1914, he premiered the three-act opera "Le Rossignol" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Fleeing the Russian Revolution of 1917, he settled in Paris. For decades, the performance of Stravinsky's music was prohibited in his homeland.

In 1919, once again commissioned by Diaghilev, he wrote the ballet "Pulcinella" which was performed a year later, on May 15, 1920, under the direction of Ansermet, choreography by Leonid Massine and stage design by Pablo Picasso.

In Paris, he met Manuel de Falla in 1910, who greatly admired his works and became the vehicle for Arthur Rubinstein to commission "Piano-rag-music" (1919) from him in 1918. In Spain, in the spring of 1916, "El pájaro de fuego" and "Petrouchka" were programmed at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

During World War I, in Switzerland, he began composing "Le Noces", a work premiered in 1923 with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, and "Histoire du soldat", presented in Lausanne in 1918. With a libretto by Boris Kokhno and staging by Nijinska, he premiered the comic opera "Mavra" in Paris in 1922. The oratorio-opera in two acts, with a libretto by Jean Cocteau, "Œdipus rex", was also premiered in Paris in 1927. On December 13, 1930, in Brussels, he premiered "La Sinfonía de los Salmos" conducted by Ansermet.

He acquired French nationality in 1934 but moved to Hollywood in 1939. After the death of his first wife, he married dancer Vera de Bosset in 1940.

He worked as a professor at Harvard University between 1939 and 1940, and wrote works such as "Danses concertantes" (1940-1942) for choir and orchestra; "Circus Polka" (1942) and "Ode" (1943) for orchestra; "Concerto in D" (1946) for string orchestra; the opera "The Rake's Progress" (1951); and "Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiae prophetae" (1957-1958) for choir and orchestra.

He acquired American nationality in 1945. Among his writings, he published articles such as "The Genius of Tchaikovsky" in "The Times" on October 18, 1921; "Une lettre de Stravinsky sur Tchaikovsky" in "Le Figaro" on May 18, 1922; "Chroniques de ma vie" (1935), or the essay "Poétique musicale" (1942), co-authored with Roland-Manuel and P. Souvtchinsky.

He passed away on April 6, 1971, in New York (United States) at the age of 88. He is buried in the cemetery of San Michele Island in Venice, alongside his wife Vera and near Diaghilev, his great professional supporter.

World War, 1939-1945

Date of the event: 1939 - 1945

Revolución rusa, 1917