Stravinsky in America
The BSO season illustrates how the composer set the bar for his 20 th -century peers .
by Christianna McCausland
The first concert of this BSO season featured Ludwig van Beethoven ’ s Symphony No . 5 in C minor and Igor Stravinsky ’ s arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner . These two greats , separated by more than 100 years , are the featured composers for the 2016 – 2017 season . It is fitting that the national anthem was chosen to kick off a Stravinsky-themed season , as many of the works to be performed this year look at the latter part of the composer ’ s life , the years he spent composing in America .
One such piece , Concerto in E-flat , will be performed in March .
“ Stravinsky took a defined direction at the start of the 20 th century , which cleared a path for those who would follow in his footsteps ,” says Music Director Marin Alsop . “ As Beethoven did with his Eroica Symphony , Ninth Symphony and especially his late string quartets at the start of the 19 th century , Stravinsky revolutionized music with ‘ The Rite of Spring ,’ thereby setting the bar for all 20 th century composers . Featuring these giants of the
19 th and 20 th centuries side by side highlights their similar revolutionary roles in the history of musical development .”
After an illustrious start to his career in his Russian homeland , where he was tutored by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , Stravinsky moved to Paris to pursue commissions for music for ballet . It was here that he debuted his most revolutionary piece , “ The Rite of Spring ,” which famously caused a riot in the concert hall . Stravinsky spent most of World War I in Switzerland before returning to France and becoming a French citizen . Then , in 1940 , Stravinsky moved to America , where he became a citizen in 1945 . He spent the rest of his life living in California or New York , composing well into his 80s . He died in 1971 .
Stravinsky ’ s various adopted homelands seemed to impact his compositions , and he took inspiration from many forms of music he encountered , even at the circus . His early works expressed Russian themes , while his Paris works were Neoclassical in style ; Symphony in Three Movements ( performed this season ) was an early American piece composed between 1942 – 1945 that shows the influence of the austere war years . In post-war America , Stravinsky dabbled in film scores and was inspired by a diverse range of music , such as jazz . Later he took up a serial , or 12-tone , modernist compositional technique .
In America , Stravinsky circulated in a culturally rich circle that included notable authors and poets like W . H . Auden ( with whom he collaborated on his only fulllength opera , The Rake ’ s Progress ). More often than not , his American pieces were commissioned and the Concerto in E-flat is no exception .
“ When Stravinsky goes to America , he is a celebrity responding to commissions and absorbing all the influences available to him while still forging his own original voice ,” says Paul Goodwin , artistic director and conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival in California . “ Whereas , in Russia and France , his music was artistically led , in America it was very much commissionled , his output lurching in all directions so as to respond to commissions and make his life financially comfortable .”
Goodwin will conduct the BSO ’ s performance of Concerto in E-flat in March .
NoPainNoGain / Shutterstock . com ( Stravinsky spot illustration ).
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