Béjart: Ravel (Bolero) / Stravinsky (Firebird) - KarazwLaimoon

Music Club: Wednesday 15 October 2014 (7 pm)

Title: A Maurice Béjart Choreography: Ravel’s Bolero + Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (VIDEO)
Two clips will be also shown, one about Ravel's Bolero and one recalls the story of the Firebird.
Composers: Ravel and Stravinsky
Facilitator: Akram Najjar

The Firebird Suite – Igor Stravinsky
Performed: 1970
Opéra national de Paris (24')
Paris Opera Ballet and Orchestra
Starring: Benjamin Pech, Karl Paquette
Choreography: Maurice Béjart
Costumes: Joëlle Roustan
Lighting: Clément Cayrol

Bolero by Maurice Ravel
Performed: 1961
Opéra national de Paris (17')
Paris Opera Ballet and Orchestra
Starring: Nicolas Le Riche with Yann Bridard, Karl Paquette.
Choreography: Maurice Béjart
Musical Direction: Vello Pähn
Sets and costumes: Maurice Béjart
Lighting: Clément Cayrol
Maurice Béjart’s choreography of these two great symphonic works will be shown (video). Significantly, both pieces were performed in Baalbek, before 1975.

More details about these performances will be provided soon.

Interesting Links about Maurice Béjart:
Click Here (Wikipedia)
Click Here (Bejart Website)
Click Here (The Guardian)
Click Here (New York Times)
Click Here (The Independent)


   

Igor Stravinsky (Adapted from Wikipedia (Click Here)
Stravinskky (1882 –1971) was a Russian (and later, a naturalized French and American) composer, pianist and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.

Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). The last of these transformed the way in which subsequent composers thought about rhythmic structure and was largely responsible for Stravinsky's enduring reputation as a musical revolutionary who pushed the boundaries of musical design. His "Russian phase" was followed in the 1920s by a period in which he turned to neoclassical music. The works from this period tended to make use of traditional musical forms (concerto grosso, fugue and symphony). They often paid tribute to the music of earlier masters, such as J.S. Bach and Tchaikovsky. In the 1950s, Stravinsky adopted serial procedures. His compositions of this period shared traits with examples of his earlier output: rhythmic energy, the construction of extended melodic ideas out of a few two- or three-note cells and clarity of form, of instrumentation and of utterance.

Interesting Links about Stravinsky:
Click Here (Wikipedia)
Click Here (Classical.net)
Click Here (Biography)
Click Here (Last.FM)
Click Here (Britannica)
Click Here (Classic FM)

Interesting Links about the Firebird Suite:
Click Here (Wikipedia)
Click Here (Music Pomona)
Click Here (Study Mode Essays)
Click Here (Classic FM)


   

Maurice Ravel (Adapted from Wikipedia Click Here)
Joseph-Maurice Ravel (1875 –1937) was a French composer known especially for his melodies, masterful orchestration, richly evocative harmonies and inventive instrumental textures and effects. Along with Claude Debussy, he was one of the most prominent figures associated with Impressionist music. Much of his piano music, chamber music, vocal music and orchestral music is part of the standard concert repertoire.
Ravel's piano compositions, such as Jeux d'eau, Miroirs, Le tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la nuit, demand considerable virtuosity from the performer, and his mastery of orchestration is particularly evident in such works as Rapsodie espagnole, Daphnis et Chloé

Interesting Links about Ravel:
Click Here (Classical.net)
Click Here (Ravel Website)
Click Here (Biography)
Click Here (Asiy Classical)
Click Here (New York Times)

Interesting Links about the Bolero:
Click Here (Ravel Website - Bolero)
Click Here (Wikipedia)
Click Here (Classical FM)
Click Here (Orchestral Bassoon)
Click Here (Wall Street Journal)

Interesting Links about Bejart’s Bolero:
Click Here (New York Times)
Click Here (The Ballet Bag)
Click Here (Classic 20)
Click Here (Topic IBN Live)