When Igor Stravinsky left Europe for life in America in 1939, his flight was due to more than the impending war. Three generations of his family had died within six months and his neoclassical works no longer met with universal admiration from influential critics.
No 20th-century composer adapted his style as much as Igor Stravinsky. From his early ballets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes to his neoclassical phase and serialism, Stravinsky’s music underwent many transformations.
Giulio Prandi, conductor of Coro e Orchestra Ghislieri, and violinist and concertmaster Gabriele Pro talk about crossing borders, adopting shared sensibilities, and the challenges facing historically informed musicians in Italy today.
Erkki-Sven Tüür talks about making sanctuary on Hiiumaa, a wild island to Estonia’s west, and his interest in writing concertos, seen “through the eyes of someone who observes the world very closely”.
The Toronto-born composer talks about new work Romanza for piano and orchestra, theatricality in music, taking influences from psychology, and the effect on his music of working for the United Nations.
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Jonathan Payn talks about The Green Table by Kurt Jooss, first performed in Paris in 1932 – and how choreography can respond to political collapse and the threat of war.
Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.
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