Stravinsky - Firebird Suite / Borodin - Polovtsian Dances

Like a great artist sees a masterpiece in the infinite possibilities of a blank canvas, Stravinsky creates a work of art using only the five lines of the staff. Inspired and intelligent, Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird paints a tonal masterpiece from the initial notes, to the closing curtains of his earliest work.

Regarded as one of music's consummate geniuses, Stravinsky's interpretation of Diaghilev's 1910 ballet is as magnificent as the fiery plumage of its firebird. Its debut on June 25, 1910 fired Stravinsky like a cannonball into international acclaim.

This ballet is based on the legend of the Zhar-Ptitsa, a magical bird with wings of flame that in the end heroically saves the protagonist from his impending demise at the hand of the evil Kastchei.

Stravinsky's composition, merely consisting of a set of notes placed in logical order according to certain interval relationships, seems to consistently match the emotions and movement of the dancers on stage. His response is his creed, "I cannot compose, until I have decided what problem I must solve."

With no physical record of Borodin's manuscript, this work is reconstructed and created by Glazounov only, through his memory of a Borodin piano performance given one night to friends.