‘Le Rossignol’, ‘Renard’, ‘Les Noces’: Boulez, 1972

Stravinsky’s short opera Le Rossignol (Solovey, or The Nightingale) was first performed by Diaghilev’s Les Ballets Russes at the Palais Garnier, Paris on 26 May 1914.  For these performances the singers were in the pit and the action on stage was taken by dancers.  The mise-en-scene, sets and costumes were by Alexander Benois and the choreofraphy by Boris Romanov.  The work was conducted by Pierre Monteux.  Stravinsky had started work on its composition in 1908 and Act 1 was completed in 1909, but he set work aside in order to work on the three ballets commissioned by Diaghilev (The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring).  The style of the work harks back to his earlier style and is particularly reminiscent of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Golden Cockerel, another tale of a fabulous bird and an Emperor.

In 1915 Stravinsky was commissioned by the Princesse de Polignac to write a piece that could be performed in her salon.  Stravinsky finished composing it in 1916, but it was not performed until 1922, when it was given, not in the Princess’s salon but by the Ballets Russes at the Palais Garnier.  Stravinsky had conceived it as a work where acrobatic dance was connected with singing.  The first staging was choreographed by Bronislav Nijinska, with designs by Mikhail Larionov.  It was conducted by Ernest Ansermet.  The singers are part of the orchestra and are not associated with characters in the drama.

Les Noces (The Wedding) was conceived by Stravinsky as a ballet-cantata in 1913 to wedding lyrics and songs collected by Piotr Kireevsky, published in 1911.  Stravinsky finished the short score by October 1917, but he went through many changes of heart concerning its orchestration and the work was not performed until 1923.  It was given its first performance by the Ballets Russes on 13 June at the Théâtre de la Gâité, Paris under the baton of Ernest Ansermet, with choreography by Bronislav Nijinska and designs by Natalia Goncharova.  The work is dedicated to Sergei Diaghilev, who wept when Stravinsky first payed it to him, declaring it to be “the most beautiful and the most purely Russian creation of our ballet company”.  With its scoring for four vocal soloists, chorus and percussion and pianos, it marks a move to a more stripped down musical style for Stravinsky.

salon

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

Le Rossignol

Track 1: Act 1

Track 2:  Act 2 and 3

Track 3:

Renard

Track 4:

Les Noces

This recording is taken from a relay made on 26 January 1972.

The recording is in the Harewood Collection at Music Preserved.