Album insights
Stravinsky's career as a ballet composer neatly divided into two distinct parts—with two minor but significant overlaps and a few deviations. Before the First World War, he quickly gained international fame for a series of ballets composed for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and he continued collaborating with or working for Diaghilev until the impresario's death in 1929. Even though his last ballet for Diaghilev was "Pulcinella" in 1920, the Ballets Russes staged earlier works like "Les Noces" in 1923 and "Le Chant du Rossignol" with sets by Matisse in 1925. The premiere of "Apollo" in June 1928, a work commissioned by the Library of Congress, marked a significant moment for Stravinsky, who considered it his true debut. These productions involved Diaghilev's protege George Balanchine as the choreographer, sparking an association that lasted for four decades until the composer's death.
The first outcome of their collaboration was "Jeu de cartes" (The Card Game), composed in 1936 and premiered in April 1937 in New York under Stravinsky's direction. Balanchine, after trying to establish himself as a choreographer in Paris post-Diaghilev, was invited to New York by Lincoln Kirstein, leading to the establishment of the American Ballet School. The school's ensemble, the American Ballet, achieved enough professionalism to be invited as the resident troupe of the Metropolitan Opera, leading Balanchine and Kirstein to commission a new ballet from Stravinsky. The concept for the ballet, however, was initially unclear, evolving from various sources such as Cocteau's suggestion of La Fontaine's fable "The Wolf and the Lamb" and Balanchine's proposal of Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Flowers of the Little Ida." Stravinsky eventually crafted the idea of a card game, emphasizing neutrality and a lack of realism in the characters, exploring the dynamics of a poker game within the ballet's three "rounds."
Stravinsky, not being a poker player, used the game as a framework for an abstract reimagining of classical ballet form found in works like "Apollo." In "Jeu de cartes," he showcased a formal approach to dance drama, reflecting his interest in the concept of "modeling." By the mid-1930s, Stravinsky had developed his own neo-classical style, utilizing tonal, rhythmic, and metrical regularity in the music. Balanchine favored this more restrained approach and collaborated on ballets like "Orpheus," minimizing narrative elements and focusing on formal, musical, and spatial geometries. Their creative partnership evolved further with works like "Agon," reflecting a shift towards esoteric aspects, leading into a distinctive new phase in Stravinsky's musical journey.