Beschreibung:

STRAVINSKY, Igor (1882-1971) and Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918). Portrait photograph, a gelatin silver print with applied hand work, [Paris], [1912-3]. 4 1/8 x 2 5/8 in. An outstanding photograph of the two composers in the library at Debussy's home, PHOTOGRAPHED BY ERIK SATIE at the time of the Diaghilev ballets Jeux and The Rite of Spring . Debussy is standing next to the seated Stravinsky, behind them are several paintings or prints, one of which resembles Hokusai's The Wave , used by Debussy on the front cover of the first edition of his symphonic sketches La mer (1903-5). VERY RARE. An evocative photograph (by a musician, of musicians) which documents a most unusual musical friendship. Cordial relationship had existed between Debussy and Stravinsky since 1910: Debussy admired both he IFirebird and Petrushka , and Stravinsky had dedicated his mystical chorus The Star-Faced One (1911-12) to the older composer. In June 1912 they played Part 1 of The Rite of Spring in its piano four-hand version at Louis Laloy's home. Both composers worked with the ballet impressario Diaghilev during this period, but when Debussy's Jeux (a "poème dansé" on a scenario by Nizhinsky, who also provided the choreography) passed almost unnoticed due to the storm over Sacre de Printemps Debussy acidly declared that "the young Russian inclines dangerously towards Schoenberg" (Griffiths, A Concise History of Avant-Garde Music , p.45). Later Stravinsky wrote his Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920) in memory of Debussy, who had died in 1918. Reproduced in Paul Griffiths, A Concise History of Avant-Garde Music (New York, 1978), p.46.