MTT leads the Fellows in a stirring performance of Stravinsky's effervescent “portrait of Broadway” perfectly capturing the glitzy, witty and playful excitement of The Great White Way.

The ravages of World War II and complications in international copyright law separated Stravinsky, newly settled in West Hollywood, from his old-world income sources. American presenters showed scant interest in his serious compositions, so Stravinsky adapted to his new environment by attempting a series of “popular” works. Some of the more notable efforts included a Tango from 1940, the Circus Polka from 1941 (which George Balanchine choreographed as a ballet featuring 50 elephants for the Barnum & Bailey Circus), and the Scherzo à la russe from 1944 for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, known for its jazz-classical hybrids since premiering Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

In that same vein, Stravinsky accepted a $5000 commission in 1944 to create a ballet suite that would be incorporated into a Broadway revue featuring the songs of Cole Porter. After previews in Philadelphia, The Seven Lively Arts ran for a respectable 183 performances in Broadway’s Ziegfeld Theatre. According to an anecdote recounted by the musicologist Joseph Horowitz and others, the show’s producer, Billy Rose, wanted the orchestrator who had prepared the Porter songs to adjust Stravinsky’s contributions as well; he telegrammed, “YOUR MUSIC GREAT SUCCESS… COULD BE SENSATIONAL SUCCESS IF YOU WOULD AUTHORISE ROBERT RUSSELL BENNETT RETOUCH ORCHESTRATION… BENNETT ORCHESTRATES EVEN THE WOKS OF COLE PORTER.” Stravinsky’s reply: “SATISFIED WITH GREAT SUCCESS.”

This dance suite, representative of Stravinsky’s “neoclassical” period, is unjustly neglected. Stravinsky’s deadpan humor is in rare form throughout, from the crooked parodies of “oom-pah” dance patterns to the overblown final chords.

--2018 Aaron Grad

The score from the New York Philharmonic archives (marked by Leonard Bernstein) is available here: https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/f7a278e9-d186-4678-bf36-5b13eec01a15-0.1/fullview#page/1/mode/2up

Originally performed February 17, 2019.