II.

Ballets and Other Early Works

In 1908 the Russian impresario Sergey Diaghilev, impressed by Stravinsky's orchestral works Scherzo fantastique (1908) and Fireworks (1910), asked the composer to write for his Ballets Russes; thus began an association of many years. His first ballets for Diaghilev, The Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911), won immediate success and were greatly admired for their dramatic impact, rich orchestration, and melodies evoking Russian folk song. At the first performance of The Rite of Spring (1913), however, the unconventional choreography and the harsh dissonances and driving, asymmetrical, shifting rhythms of the music prompted a hostile uproar so noisy that the dancers could not hear the orchestra. Later concert performances were well received.

The following year, with the outbreak of World War I, Stravinsky settled in Switzerland. There, partly because the difficult social and economic conditions during and after the war made it practically impossible to secure performances for large-scale works, he composed The Soldier's Tale (1918); it calls for limited resources: six instruments and percussion (representing the four sections of the orchestra), three actors, and a dancer. The disillusion of the war years can be seen in this work, as can the impact of jazz, which is also evident in his Rag-time (1918) for 11 instruments and in his Piano Rag-Music (1919).

In 1920 Stravinsky moved to Paris. To the years just after this move date the important Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920), the comic opera Mavra (1922), and the ballet-cantata Les noces (The Wedding), suggested by Russian folk verse and first performed by the Ballets Russes in 1923. Scored for four pianos, percussion, and voices, and influenced by the style of Russian folk melody, Les noces displays a freedom from natural word stresses that became typical of Stravinsky's works.

While living in Paris, Stravinsky also began appearing as a pianist and conductor to help support his family. He thus began writing works suitable for his own pianistic ability, such as the Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (1924). In the early 1920s he fell in love with the actor Vera de Bosset Soudeikine, whom he married in 1940, after his first wife's death.