Igor Stravinsky: Fireworks

Fireworks arguably started it all. Stravinsky wrote the short work for the wedding of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s daughter. But it is remembered as the work in which the young Stravinsky found his voice, and the work that established his connection with Sergei Diaghilev. On hearing Fireworks in 1909, Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to write a full-length ballet. The result was Firebird, followed quickly by Petrushka (1911) and Rite of Spring (1913), all premiered in Paris by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Rite of Spring, which caused quite a stir when it first performed, provides a good benchmark for the beginning of the Modern era in music.

Stravinsky went on to write quite a lot of music in different styles until his death in 1971. He clearly felt the influence of many of his contemporaries, but his works were always original, and he avoided becoming captive to any of the competing movements in modern music. But it is the works he did for the Ballets Russes in the years leading up to World War I that receive the most attention. Those are the works that are performed regularly and that have become mainstays of the orchestral repertoire. Fireworks provides a nice, short introduction to Stravinsky’s works from this period. The distinctive elements are evident in Fireworks: high energy, sparkling clarity, rhythmic complexity, and an endless array of orchestral color.