This week: The Firebird suite, the 1919 version, one movement a day. I’ve written about the suite and Doráti’s complete ballet before. This time, slowly.
Stravinsky made three concert suites from the ballet, in 1911, 1919 and 1945. The 1919 is the one orchestras play. It uses less than half the ballet and a much smaller orchestra: double winds instead of quadruple, one harp instead of three. Stravinsky himself called the original orchestra “wastefully large.” Fewer players, more performances. The LA Phil calls the suites “a savvy financial move”.
The Introduction is Kashchei’s enchanted garden at night. It starts in the double basses, very low and very quiet, with a small cell of two semitones and a major third. Nearly all the magic music in the ballet grows from it. Then the violins play a shower of harmonics, a technique Stravinsky invented for this passage. It’s hard to say what it sounds like, which is the point. You aren’t supposed to know what’s in the dark.
A muted horn, and the curtain goes up.