IgorFest: Birmingham complete Stravinsky survey

(May 2005)

June sees the launch of IgorFest, an ambitious four-year odyssey through Stravinsky’s complete output. This unique collaboration between the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under its Music Director Sakari Oramo, Birmingham Royal Ballet and a range of artistic partners based in the Midlands area of the UK, explores the music of Stravinsky, widely acknowledged as the seminal classical composer of the twentieth century.

2005 events include a BRB programme of four Stravinsky ballets, including The Rite of Spring (8-11 June), a Stravinsky Discovery Day at the CBSO Centre (12 June), a music theatre programme by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (19 June), and two Stravinsky concerts by the CBSO including Symphony of Psalms and The Firebird (15/18 June) conducted by Oramo, and Song of the Nightingale, Movements and The Fairy’s Kiss conducted by Oliver Knussen (23 June). IgorFest plans by the CBSO for June 2006 include Stravinsky’s fairy-tale opera The Nightingale and a choral programme including Canticum Sacrum and Mass performed by Ex Cathedra.

For full details visit the IgorFest website.

The variety of Stravinsky’s music across a diverse range of genres and styles, from Russian Romantic roots, though neo-classicism to bejewelled serialism, makes him an ideal subject for a festival focus or a concert series. Rather than offering total immersion, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra presented a festival this spring spreading ten Stravinsky works across seven programmes, with conducting honours shared between Marin Alsop and Joseph Swensen, augmented by a study day.


Photo: Birmingham Royal Ballet's production of The Rite of Spring. Credit: Steve Hanson

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