Long before Igor Stravinsky’s celebrated ballet of 1910, the Firebird legend had for years haunted Russian art and music as a figure of irrepressible and unattainable beauty.
In fact, Stravinsky’s teacher, the composer Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, wrote of a failed attempt in the 1860s by his own teacher, Mily Balakirev, to produce a musical treatment of the Firebird legend--a work now lost.
Well, not quite….
In this hour, how Balakirev used his unfinished Firebird as the basis for a new work that would chart a different direction for Russian music—one that would inspire Rimsky-Korsakov and others--and a half century later, launch Stravinsky’s amazing career.
FEATURED RECORDINGS
| Title | Group/Artist | Catalog # | UPC |
| Stravinsky: Firebird Suite | Brussels BRT Philharmonic Orchestra, Alexander Rahbari | Naxos 8.550263 | 730099427425 |
| Balakirev: Symphony No. 2/Symphonic Poems | USSR State Symphony Orchestra, Evgeni Svetlano | Hyperion CDA66586 | 672487101268 |
| Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade | Chicago Symphony, Fritz Reiner | RCA Red Seal 82876-66377-2 | 828766637724 |
| Rimsky-Korsakov Suites | Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi | Chandos 10369(2) X | 095115136928 |
| Works of Igor Stravinsky [Symphony in E flat] | Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Stravinsky | Sony 88697103112-08 | 886971031126 |
| Stravinsky: The Firebird, etc. [“Fireworks”] | London Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati | Mercury Living Presence 432 012-2 | 028943201223 |
| Stravinsky: The Firebird | Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle | EMI Classics 724358553826 | 724358553826 |
