When Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Orchestra recorded The Rite of Spring, they teamed Stravinsky’s ballet with spring-inspired pieces by Debussy and Rachmaninov. Their coupling for The Firebird is even more apt. Stravinsky was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, and his first ballet, written in 1910, is close stylistically to his mentor’s lush exoticism. The opera Le Coq d’Or (The Golden Cockerel) was completed in 1907, a year before the composer’s death. The orchestral suite was put together posthumously by Glazounov and Steinberg. Both works are based on fairy tales and centre around magic birds: Stravinsky’s firebird who saves Prince Ivan, and Rimsky’s golden cockerel who crows when King Dodon is in danger. (And
he should know! At the end, he pecks the King to death.)
Review: Scheherazade (Sydney Concert Orchestra)
A rapturous program cements our youngest orchestra’s place among Australia's finest.
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