The Russian (?) Stravinsky
by Sedgwick Clark
His music is so compellingly rhythmic, so delightfully witty, so eminently repeatable. Why, then, except for three early masterpieces, are so few works by Igor Stravinsky played in our concert halls today with any regularity?
We can credit New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert for the concert coup of his orchestra’s season: Russia’s foremost conductor, Valery Gergiev, leading three weeks of music by the 20th-century’s foremost composer, who also happened to be Russian. Can anyone doubt that Gilbert would have loved to perform this music himself—with the orchestra that boasts the strongest Stravinsky tradition in the world? But, as he explained last year in the season press preview, he learned that Gergiev, who we all know is music director of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, was available and thought it an irresistible opportunity for New Yorkers to hear this uniquely Russian performance combo. (The festival runs from April 21 through May 8; see our Web site’s Annotated Calendar for specific dates and programs.)
Marketing departments use the flimsiest excuses these days to call something a “festival.” And most of all, they need a title! The Philharmonic could have scheduled The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, added in the stylistically similar Song of the Nightingale and Symphony in Three Movements, and tossed in a few short works like Fireworks, Scherzo a la russe, and Circus Polka to make the “festival” seem more substantial. Moreover, purely orchestral works would have saved a lot of money and not alienated hidebound subscribers for whom any vocal music is anathema.
But no, this is a genuine festival, one that does Stravinsky and everyone involved proud. The three early ballets are scheduled, of course; also, Les Noces, Le Roi des étoiles (“King of the Stars”), Renard, L’Histoire du soldat, Symphonies of Wind Instruments, and Symphony of Psalms. Also such debatably “Russian” works—normally dubbed “neoclassical”—as Jeu de cartes, the Violin Concerto, Oedipus Rex, Orpheus, Symphony in C, Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, Concerto for Piano and Winds, and Symphony in Three Movements. One could be greedy and wonder why, after importing the Mariinsky chorus and several Russian singers to perform, such quintessentially Russian—and early—works as Le Rossignol and Mavra are omitted? I could have gladly done without the complete L’Histoire, with that tedious Ramuz text, and settled for Stravinsky’s endlessly witty and inventive music in the suite. Also the frequently performed Violin Concerto. But we would have had to give up two “star” performers to do so: Alec Baldwin as Narrator in L’Histoire, and Leonidas Kavakos as soloist in the concerto. And speaking of stars, Jeremy Irons will be the Speaker in Oedipus Rex.
One might legitimately wonder how Gergiev justifies nearly every piece as Russian. (You can find out on a five-minute video interview of the Russian conductor by the American music director, at www.nyphil.org/Stravinsky, but I’ll give you a précis.) Stravinsky grew up in St. Petersburg, his father sang at the Mariinsky, and all of young Igor’s first musical experiences were at the Mariinsky. Gergiev’s performances of Stravinsky’s music are based on his experience of Mussorgsky, Glinka, and Rimsky-Korsakov operas and their orchestration, and Tchaikovsky’s symphonies. Also, Gergiev says, at the end of his life Stravinsky said, “I think in Russian, I hear in Russian, my words are Russian.” Which makes the Mariinsky chorus’s participation a major plus, argues Gergiev, “not only in the understanding of words and color but also the energy and special sonority that comes with . . . being a part of the tradition. The chorus is all-important in Les Noces, so the difference should be quite striking.”
“Russian” or “neoclassical,” who cares in light of such extraordinary music, performed by such stellar musicians—successors to players who Stravinsky himself conducted and recorded with more than any other?
Thank you, Maestro Gilbert. I hope you bring back these and several lesser-known Stravinsky works during your tenure.