The Firebird (L'Oiseau de feu / Der Feuervogel)

Igor Stravinsky’s musical setting of the Slavonic fable of The Firebird, L’Oiseau de feu, is one of the pioneering orchestral works from the beginning of the 20th century. Reviews of the first performance of the ballet at the Théâtre National de l’Opéra in Paris in 1910 lauded Stravinsky’s “dazzling music in all shades of colour” such that Stravinsky composed two orchestral suites of his ballet. A further version followed in 1945 which has in part provided the basis for the following arrangement for flute and piano.