orchestra21

With Rite just around the corner I might have to start drinking Ogogoro. Neat.

[Drinkify found via @slarkpope né braiker]

Igor Stravinsky and Vaslav Nijinsky in 1911, the latter costumed as Petrouchka for his premiere performance of the role one hundred years ago this week.

[In homage to Tumblr of the moment awesome people hanging out together]

The backcloth designed by Natalia Goncharova for scene II of Stravinsky’s Firebird, which concludes with this famous procession [performed here by the composer on a 1967 recording]:

The curtain and other stunning textiles were commssioned from Goncharova for the 1926 Ballet Russes revival of Firebird, the original 1910 designs by Alexander Golovine and Leon Bakst having been deemed passé by the company’s director Sergei Diaghilev.

[via i12bent]

A final look at Mozart for the week, courtesy of Igor Stravinsky. In this photo by Gjon Mili the sometime neoclassicist – characteristically deadpan – shows off his negative image version of Josef Lang’s unfinished 1783 portrait.

Good reading if you missed [or were miffed by] yesterday’s DCMA scuffle between online music score library IMSLP and the UK Music Publishers Association. The ruckus was touched off by a bogus MPA copyright claim related to a work by Rachmaninoff, prompting Matthew Guerrieri to review the legal complexities surrounding Russian music written during the first half of twentieth century. His excellent piece is especially useful for anyone looking to learn more about the competing public domain and copyright-protected versions of major works by one of Rachmaninoff’s compatriots, Igor Stravinsky.

[1959 image of Stravinsky with scores by Gjon Mili]

A view of Igor Stravinsky the conductor on the fortieth anniversary of his death. If you’re in the mood to drop some coin Magnum has a killer set of Stravinsky images for hire.

[Original photograph by Cornell Capa, Venice 1953]