Word: firebirds
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...black market. Operagoers and critics came from all over Europe and the U.S. In spite of all this interest, the first-night reaction to The Rake's Progress was one of happy surprise. The harsh and riotous Stravinsky rhythms of other years (e.g., in The Firebird, The Rite of Spring) were missing. The Rake's Progress sang with old-fashioned melody...
...Shostakovich, Schoenberg or Britten on any pianist's program. They heard the music of only three contemporary U.S. composers, Morton Gould, Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson himself. Fourteen touring symphony orchestras served soothing programs made up mostly of Tchaikovsky and Wagner. Stravinsky cracked a few programs with his Firebird suite...
...folk." "To one of his rare visitors he explained that "there's not much to say about the symphony . . . It is full of the tunes they sang and played then." A composer who experimented with polytonality (writing in two or more keys simultaneously) before Stravinsky even thought about Firebird (1910), Ives somewhat whimsically deeded to set his Yankee tunes "in counter point with some Bach tunes," as "a sort of bad joke." Joke or not, audience and critics enjoyed the Second as Leonard Bernstein led the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra through it. Olin Downes of the New York...
...ballet tradition, is supposed to be a dim spot for the production of topflight classical ballerinas. Last week, watching Oklahoma-born Maria Tallchief dance with the vigorous young New York City Ballet Company, balletomanes could smile at that one. Combining gusto with flawless technique, Maria's performance in Firebird already ranks as one of the finest in present-day ballet; her other specialties, e.g., the Balanchine-Bizet Symphony in C, her Pas de Deux from Sylvia, and Divertimento, are danced with the style and confidence of a great prima ballerina. And, at 25, she has a lot of ballet...
...Manhattan Tax Lawyer Morton Baum, chairman of City Center's executive committee (and a director of the Metropolitan Opera as well), the enthusiasm seemed to justify a little spreading out. This season Balanchine was able to add to his repertory four ballets, including Firebird and a smashing new Bourèe Fantasque premièred later in the week...