Feu d'artifice
Feu d'artifice, Op. 4 (Fireworks, Russian: Фейерверк, Feyerverk) is an early composition by Igor Stravinsky, written in 1908. The work is an orchestral fantasy, and usually takes about five minutes to perform.
Composition
Stravinsky composed Feu d'artifice as a wedding present for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's daughter Nadezhda and Maximilian Steinberg, who had married a few days before her father's death. Feu d'artifice helped develop Stravinsky's reputation as a composer, although it is not considered representative of his mature work. The work has some hints of bi-tonality but is for the most part similar in style to that of Rimsky-Korsakov who, at the time, was his teacher and mentor. It has the form of a scherzo but is still labeled "orchestral fantasy" because of its short length. Alexander Siloti conducted the premiere in 1909. Stravinsky got the commission from Serge Diaghilev to write The Firebird (1910) in part because Diaghilev heard this piece of music, and was impressed with its orchestration.
Selected recorded versions
Notable recordings of the complete fantasy include:
Orchestra | Conductor | Record Company | Year of Recording | Format | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Montreal Symphony Orchestra | Charles Dutoit | Decca Records | 1984 | CD | |
Concertgebouw Orchestra | Hans Werner Henze | n/a | 1985 | TV | [1] |
Chicago Symphony Orchestra | Seiji Ozawa | RCA | 1993 | CD | |
Chicago Symphony Orchestra | Pierre Boulez | Deutsche Grammophon | 1994 | CD | |
Vienna Philharmonic | Lorin Maazel | RCA | 2000 | CD | |
References
- ↑ Broadcast in 1985 by the Radio Nederland Transcription Service
External links
- Feu d'artifice: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
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