Stravinsky, Igor Fyodorovich (1882-1971)

[Pulcinella]

Those are the transposition values, as you've worked out for yourself. Maybe this will be of assistance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_th...omplementation.

That looks useful: thanks.
It's particularly vexing to me, with a PhD in x-ray crystallography, to be confounded by symmetry, translation, inversion, and rotation in music! Maybe I need to dig out my old standard crystallography textbooks and do some revision as another, complementary, autumn/winter project.

[Bryn]

That looks useful: thanks.
It's particularly vexing to me, with a PhD in x-ray crystallography, to be confounded by symmetry, translation, inversion, and rotation in music! Maybe I need to dig out my old standard crystallography textbooks and do some revision as another, complementary, autumn/winter project.

Varèse would have been proud of you.

[Richard Barrett]

It's particularly vexing to me, with a PhD in x-ray crystallography, to be confounded by symmetry, translation, inversion, and rotation in music!

Well, you know, most musicians haven't studied science so they tend to be a bit approximate in their definitions... Mathematically speaking of course the principal serial operations are only reflections - either in the horizontal or vertical axis or both - and translations. Problematic is the fact that the horizontal axis (time) and vertical axis (pitch) look like straightforward spatial dimensions on paper, but aren't experienced in music as equivalent at all. Thus a pitch inversion is much easier to hear than a pitch retrograde - in the latter case you really have to know it's there in order to "hear" it at all, I think, except in heavily underlined cases like the film music in Lulu. This is one reason why I don't think the sort of analysis Straus seems from your description to be doing really helps much in understanding Stravinsky's twelve-tone music (and not just his). I think he's using the series in order to ensure the existence of a certain intervallic consistency, maybe pointing in the direction of Stockhausen's formulation of (his own) serial music as not the same object in different lights but different objects in the same light.

[LMcD]

on BBC 4 at 11.45 p.m. there's a repeat showing of Michael Berkeley's 2004 Masterworks programme in which his analysis of The Rite of Spring is followed by a complete performance.

[vinteuil]

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... so disappointed we're not having a Stravinsky day.

Apart from the sony 22 CD 'Works of Stravinsky' box I don't have much.

Which of the newish big boxes (DG, warner, or other) would Stravinskyans here particularly recommend?

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[Pulcinella]

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... so disappointed we're not having a Stravinsky day.
Apart from the sony 22 CD 'Works of Stravinsky' box I don't have much.

Which of the newish big boxes (DG, warner, or other) would Stravinskyans here particularly recommend?

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I guess the question is: Do I want/need another 'job lot', or should I mix and match, maybe with just a few works?
The new Warner box was also up for discussion this morning, so it might be worth waiting to see what is said about it if and when they get round to it.
Although it (i.e., the Warner box) includes some Boulez/Erato material, I would have thought that the DG (aka Universal) set had a wider back catalogue of recordings to draw on, with possibly more recent recordings.
But if you prefer to dabble, you might want to consider Steven Osborne on Hyperion in the works for piano and orchestra, Craft on Naxos for the three Greek ballets, and the 2CD Double Decca set titled 'Chamber works and rarities', to supplement your 22CD set. I don't think you'd have much to complain about in any of those.

[Richard Barrett]

I would have thought that the DG (aka Universal) set had a wider back catalogue of recordings to draw on, with possibly more recent recordings.

As I wrote on another thread earlier, that set contains many of my favourite recordings, like the Bernstein Les Noces and Mass, Gardiner Rake's Progress, Knussen Requiem Canticles and the Kontarsky brothers in the two-piano pieces, but also quite a few recordings I don't know, and probably too much Boulez, whose Stravinsky recordings have never done much for me. I certainly agree with your other individual choices.

[Bryn]

The new Warner boxed set has a lot of interesting recordings in it but I think I already have those which I want.

[Richard Barrett]

Today I listened to the new Heras-Casado Sacre. A couple of nice details and beautifully played but overall a bit lacking in power and momentum was my impression. As for the Eötvös violin concerto, I don't think it was a very interesting idea and I don't think it was realised very interestingly, but this is my reaction to pretty much all his music that I know, I always imagine that his exceptional abilities as a conductor are bound to spill over into his compositions in a fascinating way but it never seems to happen.

[Bryn]

Today I listened to the new Heras-Casado Sacre. A couple of nice details and beautifully played but overall a bit lacking in power and momentum was my impression. As for the Eötvös violin concerto, I don't think it was a very interesting idea and I don't think it was realised very interestingly, but this is my reaction to pretty much all his music that I know, I always imagine that his exceptional abilities as a conductor are bound to spill over into his compositions in a fascinating way but it never seems to happen.

Fair comment, I'd say. I certainly like his recording of The Rite with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

[Bryn]

The new Warner boxed set has a lot of interesting recordings in it but I think I already have those which I want.

Just to add that if anyone is interested in purchasing this set, Europadisc have it on offer for £51.26 until the 29th of this month.

[LMcD]

The Stravinsky 'river' sequence will now be broadcast on April 24th, timings as before.

[Serial_Apologist]

The Stravinsky 'river' sequence will now be broadcast on April 24th, timings as before.

Thanks for that info.

[Bryn]

The Stravinsky 'river' sequence will now be broadcast on April 24th, timings as before.

Great news. Happy weekend. Birthday on the Friday, Stravinsky 'river' on the Saturday, and second Pfizer/BioNTech jab on the Sunday.

[Pulcinella]

The Stravinsky Day thread seems to have disappeared.
I posted on it earlier today, asking a host to amend the title: maybe that's going on in the background as I type.
From what I remember it had some interesting posts in it, so I hope it's not been accidentally deleted.