On September 21, 1962 Igor Stravinsky arrived by plane in Russia. He was eighty several months before and 48 years passed since he had visited his native land last.
Having received an invitation to visit the USSR in the year of his jubilee Stravinsky hesitated to go for some time. Being well informed about the life (including the musical one) in the Soviet Union he didn’t keep to himself his critical attitude towards it. He denied any kind of nostalgia in an emphatic manner though once bitterly mentioned in one of his letters, “It is strange – «to pay a visit» to your «Motherland». This is our tragedy that we can be only invited to this «Motherland»”. However, the invitation was accepted and Stravinsky clearly and unambiguously gave his reason for coming to the young Leningrad composers, “I decided to come because my visit seems to get your musical art moving”. It was true that Stravinsky’s concerts, the live contacts with the great composer’s creative works became a genuine feast for Russian listeners. Moreover, his visit to Motherland turned to be the most exciting emotional experience of the last years of his life.
Six concerts – four in Moscow and two in Leningrad – presented Stravinsky’s works of different years. The compositions of the last decade were excluded completely because they were absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of the then censorship. The early works and compositions (of so called “neoclassical” period) of 1930–1940-ies were included.
The most famous was the ballet “Petrushka” that was staged in 1911 for the first time and that remained one of the most popular works by Stravinsky. The composer always included the music of “Petrushka” in his concerts.
Four scenes of the one act ballet depict the puppets’ drama that takes place in a Punch-and-Judy show booth at Shrovetide fair. In the first scene the old Charlatan shows the puppets –Petrushka, Ballerina and Moor that are magically enlivened and vigourously start dancing a Russian dance among the astonished onlookers. The second scene portrays Petrushka who is dreaming about Ballerina’s love. Moor’s life, who is stupid and wicked but always dressed in his best clothes, is represented in the third scene. Ballerina, who tries to charm him by hook or crook, likes him. At last she manages to do it but furious with jealousy Petrushka bursts into the room and interrupts their love declaration. Moor gets fierce and drives Petrushka out. In the fourth scene the Pancake festival is at its full swing. At the moment of the climax the puppets run outside. Moor slays Petrushka with a single stroke the sable, and miserable Petrushka dies on the snow surrounded by the crowd of the merry makers. The Charlatan tries to calm everybody down. He shows everybody that Petrushka is nothing but a puppet. The crowd disperses. However, Petrushka’s ghost appears on the roof of the little strolling theatre booth; he threatens his tormentor and teases those who believe this hallucination.
Another ballet score that was performed at Stravinsky’s concerts was composed in absolutely different manner as “Petrushka”. “Orpheus” (1947) was created after George Balanchine’s idea, who was one of the greatest choreographers and incomparable interpreter of Stravinsky’s music on the ballet stage. The Greek classical myth about Orpheus is taken in its original version with the tragic turn – this makes difference between Gluck’s opera with the happy end and the ballet. The libretto was written by Stravinsky. There are three scenes in the ballet: Orpheus is mourning the loss of Eurydice; accompanied by a death angel he descends in the underworld, and the furies that are charmed with his singing return his beloved; Orpheus and Eurydice leave the Underworld, Orpheus turns round, Eurydice falls dead and Bacchantes tear Orpheus into pieces. In the epilogue Apollo glorifies Orpheus raising his lyre up to the heaven.
Music of the ballet is notable for its noble restraint; it is devoid of any kind of pressure and exaggeration. This trait is the most conspicuous in the scene of Eurydice’s death where the climax is marked with a long pause. “Some things are beyond the human ability to express”. Stravinsky commented on this scene.
The work of the same period “Ode (Elegiacal Chant in Three Parts)” (1943) obtains features of memorabilia: Stravinsky composed it after Sergei Koussevitzky’s request in memoriam of his wife. Natalia Koussevitzky died in 1942. The first part “Eulogy” corresponds the subtitle “Elegiac Song” to the most degree. “Eclogue” has a genre character – its music was supposed for the scene of hunting in the film “Jane Eire” and French horns describe a call-over of horns in the forest. The final part “Epitaph” is characteristic of an austere ritual.
The short but very spectacular play “Fireworks” (1908) was composed by Stravinsky as a wedding present for his fiends Maximilian Steinberg and Nadezhda Rimsky-Korsakova, a daughter of the great composer who was Stravinsky’s teacher. The young composer’s piece is a brilliant example of effective and extremely inventive record.
Stravinsky was fond of performing the arrangement of the Russian folk song “Hei, ukhnem!” (The Volga Barge Haulers’ Song) an encore. He arranged it within one night in April 1917 when after the February Revolution it was necessary to substitute the anthem “God, bless the Tsar” that was performed at the beginning of concerts. The song was arranged by Stravinsky for wind and percussion instruments that is why it rings unusually powerful and menacing. In 1917 it was called “New Russia’s Anthem”, and Pablo Picasso drew a red flag for the cover of its first edition.
