Igor Stravinsky: biography, interesting facts, creativity

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky is perhaps the most controversial and avant-garde figure in the musical culture of the 20th century. His original work does not fit into the framework of a single stylistic model, it unexpectedly combines various directions, for which the composer's contemporaries called "a thousand people of one style". The great experimenter, he was keenly aware of the changes that occurred in life, and he sought to live with time. And yet his music has its true face - Russian. All the works of Stravinsky are deeply imbued with the Russian spirit - this has earned the composer incredible popularity abroad and sincere love in the Fatherland.

A brief biography of Igor Stravinsky and many interesting facts about the composer can be found on our page.

Short biography of Stravinsky

Igor was born in 1882 in the town of Oranienbaum in a theatrical family. The father of the future composer shone on the opera stage of the Mariinsky Theater, and his mother, being a pianist, accompanied her husband during concerts. The whole artistic and cultural color of St. Petersburg was gathered in their house - Lyadov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Stasov, drove Dostoevsky. The creative atmosphere in which the future composer grew up subsequently influenced the formation of his artistic tastes and the diversity of the form and content of musical compositions.

During his childhood and early youth, it was even difficult to suspect that genius was growing in the family. At the age of 9, Igor began to learn music, but his son did not see the prerequisites for a promising musical career. At their insistence, Stravinsky, who was far from brilliantly studying, entered the university in the Faculty of Law. Then he began to show his deep and serious interest in music. True, the famous composer and close friend of the Rimsky-Korsakov family, from whom the young Stravinsky took lessons in orchestration and composition, went to the conservatory of his student ... he advised that it was not worth spending time on theoretical preparation when you need to focus on practice. He managed to give Stravinsky a strong composer school, and the future destroyer of musical stereotypes for the rest of his life retained the warmest memories of his teacher.

Glory fell upon Igor Stravinsky unexpectedly, and this fact has a direct relationship with the name of the founder of the "Russian Seasons" in Paris, Sergei Dyagilev. In 1909, the famous entrepreneur, planning the fifth “seasons”, was absorbed in the search for the composer for the new ballet performance “The Firebird”. This was not an easy task, because in order to conquer the sophisticated French public, it was necessary to create something completely special, daring, original. Dygilev was advised to pay attention to the 28-year-old Stravinsky. The young composer was not known to the general public, but Dygilev’s skepticism melted at the same instant as he heard one of his compositions performed by Stravinsky. An experienced impresario, who possessed an amazing instinct for talents, was not mistaken here either.

After the premiere of "The Firebird", which opened in 1910 another facet of Russian art for Parisians, Stravinsky gained incredible popularity and overnight became the most fashionable Russian composer with the European public. The next three years proved that the success of "Firebird" was not a passing accident. During this time, Stravinsky wrote two more ballets, Petrushka and Sacred Spring. But if Firebird and Petrushka caused fierce delight in the public almost from the first bars, the audience did not accept the Sacred Spring to such an extent that one of the greatest scandals in the history of the theater broke out at the premiere. Perturbed Parisians called the music of Stravinsky barbaric, and his own - "unbridled Russian."

"Spring sacred" became for the composer the last work he wrote in his homeland. Then he waited for the long and difficult years of forced emigration.

World War I caught the composer and his relatives in the Swiss town of Montreux. According to Stravinsky’s biography since 1920, Paris became his main residence. In the next 20 years, the composer has experimented a lot with different styles, using the musical aesthetics of antiquity, baroque, classicism, but interprets them in an unconventional way, deliberately creating musical hoaxes. In 1924, Igor Stravinsky for the first time appears to the Parisian public as a talented performer of his works.

In 1934, he took French citizenship and released an autobiographical work called "Chronicle of my life". The end of the 30s Stravinsky later called the most difficult period in his fate. He survived a great tragedy - in a short time the composer lost three people dear to him. In 1938 his daughter died, and in 1939 his mother and wife died. The deep mental crisis caused by personal drama, even more aggravated with the beginning of the Second World War. Salvation for him was a new marriage and relocation to the United States. The acquaintance with this country took place at Stravinsky in 1936, when he first embarked on a transatlantic touring tour. After moving the composer chose San Francisco as his residence, and soon moved to Los Angeles. 5 years after moving, he becomes a citizen of the United States.

The late stage of Stravinsky's creativity is characterized by the predominance of spiritual themes in it. The culmination of creativity becomes the "Requiem" ("Requiem Chants") - this is the quintessence of the composer's artistic quest. Stravinsky wrote his last masterpiece at the age of 84, when he was already seriously ill and had a presentiment of his speedy departure. "Requiem", in fact, he summed up the past life.

The composer did not become April 6, 1971. At his request, he was buried in Venice next to his old friend Sergey Dyagilev.

Interesting facts about Stravinsky

• Stravinsky had a rare diligence, he could work without a break for 18 hours. At 75, he had a 10-hour working day: before dinner he spent 4-5 hours writing music, and after dinner he devoted 5-6 hours to orchestration or transcriptions.
• The daughter of I. Stravinsky Lyudmila became the wife of the poet Yury Mandelstam.
• Stravinsky and Dyagileva tied not only the bonds of friendship, but also kinship. They had each other five cousins.
• The first museum of the composer was created in 1990 in Ukraine, in the city of childhood Stravinsky Ustylug, where their family estate was located. Since 1994, there has been a tradition in the Volyn region to hold the Igor Stravinsky Music Festival.

• The composer always yearned for Russia. From the biography of Stravinsky, we learn that in October 1962, the cherished dream came true - after a half-century absence, he came home, accepting an invitation to celebrate his 80th birthday here. He gave several concerts in Moscow and his native Leningrad, met with Khrushchev. But his arrival was overshadowed by the close supervision of the special services, which, in their official zeal, even disconnected telephones in hotels in order to limit the composer’s contacts with compatriots. When, after this trip, one of the relatives asked Stravinsky why he should not move to his homeland, he replied with bitter irony: "Have a good little by little."
• Stravinsky tied the bonds of friendship and friendship with many famous people from the world of art, literature, cinema - Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Proust, Picasso, Aldous Huxley, Charlie Chaplin, Coco Chanel, Walt Disney.
• The composer was always afraid of colds - for this reason he preferred warm clothes and, it happened, he even went to bed in a beret.
• People who had a habit of talking loudly caused instinctive horror in Stravinsky, but any hint of criticism against him provoked a flash of rage in him.
• Stravinsky liked to skip a glass or two, and joked about it with his characteristic wit that his name should be written "Straviski".
• Stravinsky was fluent in four languages, and wrote in seven languages ​​- French, German, English, Italian, Latin, Hebrew and Russian.
• Once, customs officers at the Italian border became interested in an unusual portrait of the composer, written by his friend Pablo Picasso in a futuristic manner. The image, consisting of incomprehensible circles and lines, was little like a portrait of a man, and as a result, the customs officers seized Picasso's masterpiece from Stravinsky, finding it a secret military plan ...
• For a long time, a ban was imposed on the music of Stravinsky in the USSR, and students were excluded from music schools for their interest in the composer-emigrant scores.
• Difficult years of lack of money formed in the character of the composer the habit of saving even in trifles: if he saw on the received letter a stamp with no trace of a stamp, he carefully peeled it off to use it again.
• Stravinsky remarkably painted, was a fine connoisseur of painting. Of the 10,000 volumes of his home library in Los Angeles, two-thirds of the books were in the visual arts.
• In 1944, Stravinsky made an arrangement of the official anthem of the United States as an experiment, which caused a huge scandal. The police warned the composer that if such hooliganism was repeated, he would be fined.
• French bohemia was conquered by Stravinsky’s music to such an extent that popular music critic Florent Schmitt called his country house "The Firebird Villa."
• In 1982, the Sacred Spring score was sold at auction to the Swiss philanthropist Paul Sacher for $ 548,000. This amount was the largest that was given for the autograph of a composer. Zaher was personally acquainted with Stravinsky and made every effort to get rarities related to the great contemporary. Today, the Sacher Fund has the Stravinsky archive, which includes 166 boxes of his letters and 225 boxes of preserved musical autographs, their total value is $ 5,250,000.

• The A-319 airline Aeroflot was named after Stravinsky.
• The main decoration of the picturesque square of Stravinsky in Paris is the original fountain, which also bears his name.
• In Klaran, you can walk along the street "Holy Spring" - Stravinsky finished work on this ballet in this Swiss village on November 17, 1912.

Women in the life of Stravinsky

Stravinsky’s biography says that Ekaterina Nosenko, Ekaterina Nosenko, was his first love when he was walking ... 10th year. But the feeling of mutual sympathy and trust that erupted between two children in the first minutes of their acquaintance, they carried through their entire lives. Even the fact that Catherine accounted for Stravinsky's cousin did not prevent them from joining their destinies. In 1906, they secretly married, because marital unions between close relatives, to which cousins ​​belonged, were prohibited. Catherine from an early age suffered from lung disease, which did not prevent her from giving birth to a spouse of four children - Fedor, Lyudmila, Svyatoslav and Milena. In order to maintain his wife’s poor health, Stravinsky took the family for the winter to Switzerland. In 1914, following the established tradition, they left for Europe, but they could not return - first the World War I prevented, then the revolution. The financial situation of the family was deplorable, as all the property and savings of the Stravinsky remained in Russia. The gracious genius of the composer in this difficult period of life was the famous Gabrielle Chanel, who invited the Stravinsky to live in her villa. It is not known whether these two outstanding people were bound by anything more than bonds of friendship, although there are many guesses about this even today. But the fact that Coco Chanel supported the composer’s family for many years is an indisputable fact.

In 1921 another fateful meeting took place in the life of Stravinsky. The actress Vera Sudeikina, a beauty and a clever girl, was introduced to the composer by Dygilev. Vera was married, but soon left her husband to devote herself to Stravinsky. Despite the passionate love that bound them, the musician did not leave the family. Such a double life, painful for everyone, including children who knew about the existence of another woman in the father’s life, lasted about 20 years. In 1939, Catherine died of consumption, and in 1940 Stravinsky married Vera and went to the USA with her. Life has proven that their love was not a whim, but a real, deep feeling. They have been married for fifty years. Vera passed away at the age of 94, having outlived her famous spouse by ten years. She was buried in Venice next to her husband.

Creativity Stravinsky

In the work of Stravinsky conditionally there are three periods. The initial is called "Russian", its time frame is limited to 1908 - the beginning of the 1920s. It was then that the “Firebird”, “Parsley” and “Sacred Spring” ballets saw the light of day, which made Stravinsky famous. All three are united by the use of Russian folklore in the score with all its richness and diversity. Another striking example of the “Russian” style was the ballet cantata “Weddings”, which was based on the motifs of village wedding songs. The same period includes bikes-pantomime in the barnyard "Renard"(1916), whose idea was inspired by folk tales, operas"Nightingale"(1916) and"Soldier story" (1918).

In the works of Stravinsky beginning of the 20s, there is a desire to appeal to the experience of previous eras, the use of the principles of neoclassicism. The scope of his works is expanding due to the reference to the biblical subjects, ancient mythology. The “first swallow”, announcing that the stylistic concept of the composer’s creativity undergoes profound changes, became a ballet with singing ”Pulcinella"(1920), where Stravinsky uses the music of composers of the Baroque era. Paying tribute to neoclassicism, the composer created a whole series of diverse works in genre, structure, and style - the operas"Mavra", "King Oedipus", "Adventures of the hangs"ballets"Fairy Kiss", "Apollo Musaget", "Orpheus", "Symphony of Psalms"for chorus and orchestra, melodrama"Persephone". The period of neoclassicism lasted in the composer's creative life for about 30 years.

In 1947, beginning conductor Robert Kraft appeared in Stravinsky’s entourage. The composer imbued with confidence in the young colleague so much that he trusted him to conduct at his concerts and even agreed to his proposal to record their conversations about music and art.

Close communication with Kraft spodviglo Stravinsky to experiment with serial technology. Its followers were Viennese innovative composers A. Schoenberg and A. von Webern. But in this case, Stravinsky did not change his creative credo - music, the creation of which he was guided by the principles of serial technology, still retains the unique author's style. Vivid illustrations of the use of serial technology are ballet "Agon", biblical opera" Flood ", biblical oratorios"Sermon, parable and prayer"and"Cry of the prophet Jeremiah".

Stravinsky's music used in cinema

Films about Igor Stravinsky

• Stravinsky in Hollywood. (France, Germany, 2014) Documentary, biographical.
• "Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky" (France, Japan, Switzerland, 2009) Art Film. Dir. Jan Kunen. The film is based on the novel "Coco and Igor" by C. Greenholph. The premiere demonstration of the film took place in 2009 at the closing of the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.
• Geniuses and villains. Igor Stravinsky. The Long Road to Yourself (2012) Documentary.
• Igor Stravinsky: composer. / Igor Stravinsky: Composer. (Germany, Sweden, 2001), musical, biographical. Dir. Janos Darwash. In the film, you can hear Stravinsky's reasoning about life and music, memories of Nizhinsky and the story of the birth of the ballet "The Firebird".
• Igor Stravinsky: from the “Geniuses” program cycle. To the 125th anniversary of I.F. Stravinsky. 2007. Documentary. Dir. Andrei Konchalovsky.
• Once on the border ... (Once, at a Border ...) Great Britain, 1982. Documentary. Dir. Tony Palmer. The film was shot for the composer's 100th anniversary.

The creative heritage of Stravinsky has more than 7.5 thousand pages of musical scores. They concluded a thorny, but bright creative way of the greatest composer of the twentieth century, who rightly called himself "a man of the world", reflected the ideas of searching for harmony and meaning of being, embodied all conceivable styles and trends of world musical culture - from classical to jazz. His music, which contemporaries often did not understand, scolded, booed, is today recognized as the standard of avant-garde art.