Bruckner & Stravinsky
Sunday, February 12, 2012, 7 pm
Anton Bruckner, composer
Born: September 4, 1824 in Ansfelden, Austria
Died: October 11, 1896 in Vienna
Education: began musical training as a child, but later attended school at the Monastery at St. Florian where he studied violin, singing, and organ; after dabbling in schoolteaching, was appointed the organist in Linz when he began studying with Viennese thoerist Simon Sechter; later studied orchestration with Otto Kitzler
Wagner: after being introduced to Wagner’s music by Kitzler, he continued to cultivate his knowledge of and admiration for the composer, who he came to refer to as the “Meister aller Meister”
Works: Missa solemnis, Festkantate, Mass in E minor, Ave Maria, Mass in D minor, Symphony no. 1 in C minor, Mass in F minor, Locus iste, Virga Jesse floruit, Symphony no. 5, String Quintet, Symphony no. 7
Performer: An accomplished organist, he became well known as an improviser at the organ; had a reputation as an international virtuoso, established by highly acclaimed tours to Paris and London
Igor Stravinsky, composer
Born: June 17, 1882 in Orantienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia
Died: April 6, 1971 in New York
Education: born to musical family: his father was a widely recognized bass-baritone, and his mother was an amateur pianist; attended St. Petersburg University as a law student, where he met Vladimir Rimsky-Korsakov, son of the composer who later became his teacher
Known for: his stylistic diversity and innovations in rhythm and harmony; composed in roughly three periods: Russian/nationalistic period, Neoclassical period, and Serial period; also known as a pianist and conductor, often through premiering his own works
Notable compositions: Russian period: The Firebird, Petrushka, Rite of Spring, Les Noces; Neoclassical period: Pulcinella, Oedipus Rex, Symphony in C, The Rake’s Progress; Serial period: Cantata, Three Songs from Shakespeare, Agon, Canticum Sacrum, The Flood
Emigration: travelled to France to work with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and stayed in Western Europe once World War I began and the Russian borders closed; lived in Switzerland and then France, where he became a citizen in 1934; later moved to Los Angeles and became a naturalized American citizen in 1945