Miller Theatre brings perspective to Stravinsky

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(April 2008)

Throughout the month of April, New York City’s Miller Theatre presented the STRAVINSKY FESTIVAL, a five-concert series exploring the works of one of the towering musical giants of the twentieth century. Underscoring Igor Stravinsky’s astonishing versatility and breadth of style, the festival featured over 45 works drawn from Stravinsky’s less frequently heard chamber music, songs, choral compositions, and orchestral music.

Executive Director George Steel announced: “Igor Stravinsky remains, quite simply, the most important composer of the 20th century. This festival brings a joyous close to the Miller Theatre season, filling three wonderful New York venues with music known and unknown by the great master.”

The festival ran through April 9, 17, 19, 22, and 24, featuring a program each of Stravinsky’s complete songs, chamber music, sacred pieces, piano works, and violin works.

In response to the festival, the Wall Street Journal addressed the importance of Stravinsky’s well-known ballets which “…placed [him] at the center of the contemporary world of arts and letters, on an equal footing with such figures -- and Stravinsky collaborators -- as Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. …” and explored the value of his lesser-known works: “Moreover, having quickly arrived at the cutting edge of 20th-century music, Stravinsky never left it. A true man of the theater, he usually strove to keep his music emotionally vital rather than merely illustrative of academic theories. Even more than his dazzling instrumentation and often acerbic harmony, his revolutionary sense of rhythm altered the musical landscape for other composers thereafter.”

Miller Theatre’s STRAVINSKY FESTIVAL full program:

Wednesday, April 9
Stravinsky's Chamber Music
Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library and Museum
PROGRAM: “Dumbarton Oaks” concerto (1937-38)
Eight Instrumental Miniatures (1962)
Concertino for Twelve Instruments (1952)
Ragtime (1917-18)
Octet (1922-23)
Septet (1952-53)
Pastorale (1933)
Three pieces for String Quartet (1914)
Double Canon (1959)
Epitaphium (1959)
Fanfare for a New Theatre (1964)
Lied ohne Name (1916-18)
Three Pieces for solo clarinet (1918)
Elégie (1944)
Study (1917)

Thursday, April 17
Stravinsky's Complete Songs
PROGRAM: Storm Cloud (1902)
How the Mushrooms Prepared for War (1904)
The Faun and the Shepherdess, Op. 2 (1907)
Deux Mélodies, Op. 6 (1908)
Deux poèmes de Paul Verlaine, Op. 9 (1910)
Deux poèmes de K. Balmont (1911/1954)
Trois poésies de la lyrique japonaise (1912-13)
Trois petits chansons (1913/1930)
Pribaoutki (1914)
Berceuses du chat (Cat's Cradle Songs) (1915)
The Bear’s Little Song (from Three Children’s Tales) (1916-17)
Berceuse (1917)
Four Russian Songs (1919)
Russian Maiden’s Song (from Mavra) (1922)
Three Songs from William Shakespeare (1953)
In memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954)
Elegy for J.F.K. (1964)
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat (1966)

Saturday, April 19
Sacred Masterpieces
Park Avenue Armory
PROGRAM: Symphony of Psalms (1930)
Mass (1944-48)
Requiem Canticles (1965-66)
Variations (Aldous Huxley in memoriam) (1963-64)

Tuesday, April 22
Music for One and Two Pianos
Chapel of St. Bartholomew's Church
PROGRAM: Three Movements (from Petrushka) (1921)
Sonata for piano (1924)
Sonata for two pianos (1943-44)
Concerto for piano and winds (two-piano version) (1920)
Piano-Rag-Music (1919)
Tango (1940)

Thursday, April 24
Music for Violin and Piano
Chapel of St. Bartholomew's Church
PROGRAM: Duo concertant (1931-32)
Violin Concerto, arr. for violin and piano (1931)
Danse russe (from Petrushka) (1932)
Two arrangements from The Firebird: Berceuse (1926) and Scherzo (1932)
Chants du rossignol et Marche chinoise (from The Nightingale) (1932)
Divertimento from Le baiser de la fée (1934)

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