Tracks:
1.
Stravinsky Petrouchka First Tableau: Part I
2. Stravinsky Petrouchka First Tableau: Part II
3. Stravinsky Petrouchka Second Tableau: Petrouchka's Room
4. Stravinsky Petrouchka Third Tableau: The Moor's Room
5. Stravinsky Petrouchka Fourth Tableau: The Strove-Tide Fair
6. Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Adoration of the Earth Part I
7. Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Adoration of the Earth Part II
8. Stravinsky The Rite of Spring The Sacrifice Part I
9. Stravinsky The Rite of Spring The Sacrifice Part II
10.
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring The Sacrifice
Part III
11.
Stravinsky's Early Life
12.
Listener’s Guide to Petrouchka
13.
Listener’s Guide to The Premiere of The
Rite of Spring
14.
Listener’s Guide to The Rite of Spring
Part I: Adoration of the Earth
15.
Listener’s Guide to The Rite of Spring
Part II: The Sacrifice
16.
Stravinsky's Later Life and Work
Stravinsky the Modernist
As the 20th
century wound to a close, Igor Stravinsky stood securely as its most important and influential composer. For more than
six decades his works defined modernism in music, just as Picasso’s canvasses showed the essence of modernism in painting.
Like that great Spanish artist, who was almost his exact contemporary, Stravinsky attained a dominating stature in his field.
Only a handful of composers rivaled him in significance during his lifetime. None surpassed him.
Stravinsly’s pre-eminence
among modern masters rests in large part on the great originality of his work. The composer introduced new rhythmic possibilities
into concert music, made expressive use of dissonance and conceived unprecedented instrumental sonorities baffled some listeners
early in the century and cemented the composer’s reputation as a daring modernist. Yet for all his innovation, Stravinsky
was no iconoclast bent on destroying the past. On the contrary, his art was in many ways rooted in tradition. He drew inspiration
from legends and fairy tales, from old Italian comedy and classic myths. And he loved music from earlier centuries and paid
homage to it in a number of his works.
Stravinsky’s Early Life and Career
Stravinsky was born in 1882 into a middle-class Russian family. His father was a singer with the Imperial
opera company in St. Petersburg, and as a boy Stravinsky had a unique opportunity to listen to rehearsals and attend
performances at the famed Maryinski Theater. Although he also received piano lessons and some instruction in the fundamentals
of harmony, his parents hoped that he would forego a career in music for one in law. Stravinsky did enter the university at
St. Petersburg to prepare for such a career, but music had already become his principal interest. Neglecting
his courses, he became a pupil of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the famous composer of Sheherazade. Under Rimsky-Korsakov’s tutelage, Stravinsky composed several promising early pieces,
including a symphony, part of a fairy tale opera, and a brilliant orchestral tone poem called Fireworks. A performance of this last work led to a commission from the Paris-based Ballets
Russes, or “Russian Ballet,” in February, 1909, an event that would change the course of Stravinsky’s life
and thrust him into the forefront of the modern movement in the arts. 
