The Firebird for Solo Piano: Complete Ballet

by Igor Stravinsky

Composed in 1910, The Firebird was the first of many successful ballets that brought Igor Stravinsky international recognition. In collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russe, Stravinsky based his score on an old Russian fairytale. It tells a musical story of a prince's kindness to a captive bird, his encounter with a bevy of princesses trapped in an enchanted garden, and his battle against an army of monsters. "You don't even have to see the stage," explained Leonard Bernstein in his Young People's Concerts, "the music tells you everything. This music does honor to the art of ballet, and to music, and to Stravinsky himself, the greatest master our century has produced."
This edition is Stravinsky's own reduction for solo piano. Originally intended for Ballets Russe rehearsals, this arrangement has evolved into a popular and challenging part of the piano repertoire. It also offers an excellent way for listeners to follow this complex work and to fully appreciate its brilliance.

Genres: Music, Scores

80 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1983

About the author

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music.

He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the century. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1946. In addition to the recognition he received for his compositions, he also achieved fame as a pianist and a conductor, often at the premieres of his works.

He also published a number of books throughout his career, almost always with the aid of a collaborator, sometimes uncredited. In his 1936 autobiography, Chronicles of My Life, written with the help of Walter Nouvel, Stravinsky included his infamous statement that "music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all."