Beschreibung:

STRAVINSKY, Igor (1882-1971). MANUSCRIPT OF THE ORIGINAL PIANO REDUCTION OF APOLLON MUSAGETE in the hand of the composer's first wife Katerina Nossenko, inscribed 'Apollon-Musagete, Ballet en deux tableaux', marked at the beginning 'Igor Strawinsky, 1927' and at the end 'Fin du Ballet, Igor Strawinsky, Nice le 9-I-28', marked throughout with the titles of the scenes, the accompanying dramatic action and tempi and dynamic indications and figures in the score, the title page bearing the stamp of the Russischer Musikverlag, black ink, possibly later fingering and some minor amendments to the score in pencil, mostly four systems per page, 38 pages, paginated throughout, folio , unbound bifolio manuscript leaves, (very slight soiling). Apollon musagète was commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge for production at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., where it was first performed on 27 April 1928. Hans Kindler conducted, Adolph Bolm choreographed the ballet and the stage sets and costumes were designed by Nicholas Remissov. The work was later revised as Apollo in 1947, but the original version, for which the present manuscript is the contemporary piano reduction, was composed in 1927, completed in Nice in January 1928 and published later that year by Editions Russes de Musique. The orchestral version of the ballet was written for string orchestra only and represents Stravinsky's reacceptance of the symphony orchestra and in particular the role of the strings within it, augmented in Apollon by a divided 'cello section. The ballet itself is 'a hymn to the concepts of reason and enlightenment as the foundation of beauty' (Eric Walter White, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , London, 1980, vol.18, p.253). Although Stravinsky did not conduct the world premiere, he conducted the first Paris performance by the Ballets Russes (on 12 June at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt and the first London performance, both of which were tremendous successes.