# Which are the five greatest works by Igor Stravinsky in your opinion?



## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

The works are ordered more or less chronologically. Define "greatest" as you wish. If you choose _Other(s)_, please tell us here in the comments section which work(s) you had in mind.

You may change your vote later.

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Top ten most voted works that belong to Igor Stravinsky's five greatest according to the poll at the moment (in case of tie, later work gets priority in the ordering):

1. The Rite of Spring (37 votes)
2. Petrushka (26 votes)
3. Symphony of Psalms (25 votes)
4. The Firebird (25 votes)
5. Violin Concerto in D (13 votes)
6. Symphony in Three Movements (8 votes)
7. Appollon musagète (7 votes)
8. L'Histoire du soldat (7 votes)
9. Concerto in E-flat "Dumbarton Oaks" (5 votes)
10. Oedipus Rex (5 votes)

Works that aren't directly in the poll and were cited by members who voted for _Other(s)_ so far (in alphabetical order):

Abraham and Isaac (1 vote)
Canticum sacrum ad honorem Sancti Marci nominis (1 vote)
Elegy for J.F.K. (1 vote)
Movements for Piano and Orchestra (2 votes)
Septet (1 vote)
Scherzo Fantastique (1 vote)
Symphony No. 1 in E-flat (1 vote)
Total votes at the moment: 45.

Last update: 10/27/2022.


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

None. Not a fan.


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

haziz said:


> None. Not a fan.


Not even this?





I voted for the E-flat symphony, Firebird-Petrushka-Rite trilogy, and the Symphony of Psalms.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The Sacre (6/6), Petrushka, Firebird and Symphony of Psalms (all 5/6), and as best of the rest, Dumbarton Oaks (4/6).


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Not a fan? Try this. Stravinsky wasn't always scratchy and obtuse. You can find other performances more legato than this too.

BTW my favorites: *Agon*, *Symphony In Three Movements*, *Firebird*, *Petruschka*, *(Hi)Story of the Soldier. Second five *would be Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Symphony No. 1, Dumbarton Oaks, Octet and Apollo. Overall I think it hard to rank works by Stravinsky without having Firebird and/or Petruskha near the top.

If I never hear or hear of *Rite of Spring* again it won't be too soon. Maybe it is interesting music but try dancing to it (It's supposed to ballet after all.)


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

I like best Stravinsky's music between the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s.
I'm intrigued with this time period wherein composers over age 50 (like Benjamin Frankel, Roberto Gerhard & others) switched gears and began to utilize dodecaphony in their latter days.
I imagine it wasn't exactly easy to learn anew the 12-tone techniques which weren't imprinted into their musical education during youth.

1. Movements for Piano and Orchestra 1959
2. Canticum sacrum ad honorem Sancti Marci nominis 1955
3. Requiem Canticles 1966
4. Elegy for J.F.K. 1964
5. Abraham and Isaac 1963


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

While I am not as big a fan as I used to be, he still holds up pretty well for me. 

I went with:

The Rite of Spring
Histoire du soldat
Movements for Piano and Orchestra

But, The Firebird and Petrushka are still pretty high on my list, too.


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

I chose:
The Firebird
The Rite of Spring
Symphony of Psalms
The Rake's Progress
Other (Septet)


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

Overall, Stravinsky is (unlike Bartok) a composer whose music I more respect and admire than love and there is quite a bit I have not heard, or only heard a couple of times and didn't connect with (e.g. a lot of the vocal and late music)

I voted Petrushka, Symphony in 3 movements, Symphony of Psalms, Violin concerto, and changed from Le Sacre to Soldier's Tale (one of the first of his pieces I encountered (in school)). I wanted a bit of variety, other candidates would have been symphony in C, Dumbarton Oaks, Ebony concerto, Octet.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

I voted Rite, Petrushka, Symphony of Psalms, and in slightly rebellious mode, Requiem Canticles (12-tone stuff you can listen to? Wow!!) and Apollo (it's just sublimely beautiful). The Violin Concerto just missed out, alas.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

CnC Bartok said:


> I voted Rite, Petrushka, Symphony of Psalms, and in slightly rebellious mode, Requiem Canticles (12-tone stuff you can listen to? Wow!!) and Apollo (it's just sublimely beautiful). The Violin Concerto just missed out, alas.


I have no problems finding plenty of 12 tone stuff _I_ can listen to, besides Stravinsky.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I will list my favorites.

The Rite of Spring
Pulcinella 
Violin Concerto
Concerto in E-flat "Dumbarton Oaks"
Symphony of Psalms


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

The 5 greatest pieces by Stravinsky happen to be the ones I know the best:
Symphony of Psalmes
Oedipus Rex
Firebird
Rite of Spring
Petrushka


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't know about greatest but I picked five favorites although I like more than five. Some pieces I don't know, and Pulcinella is a work I never could get into. I've always loved Symphonies of Wind Instruments, which didn't make the list.

The Firebird
Petroushka
Les Noces
Violin Concerto
Agon


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Simon Moon said:


> I have no problems finding plenty of 12 tone stuff _I_ can listen to, besides Stravinsky.


'Twas a tongue-in-cheek comment, but never mind.......


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## justekaia (Jan 2, 2022)

Rite of Spring
Petrushka
Symphony of Psalms
Violin Concerto 
Oedipus Rex


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## Waehnen (Oct 31, 2021)

Firebird
Rite of Spring
Symphony in C
Symphony in Three Movements
Symphony of Psalms


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Greatest or Favorite? Big difference. The former impossible to really judge, the latter easy, which is what I think most people selected. Me too. 
Firebird
Rite of Spring
Petrushka
Symphony of Psalms
Rake's Progress

BTW - if anyone is interested, this week I've been listening to a remarkable 2-disk set from Les Siecles on Harmonia Mundi which has the three early ballets as well as another conglomeration of music written for Ballet Russe. For the Stravinsky works they used the original versions on period instruments. It's extremely interesting and a really well done production. The differences in timbre from modern instruments is striking at times, and somethings more subtle, But if you're interested in Stravinsky, especially those three most popular and famous works, you ought to hear those recordings.


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## GingerOpera (3 mo ago)

Really really difficult to choose JUST FOUR!


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## GingerOpera (3 mo ago)

mbhaub said:


> Greatest or Favorite? Big difference. The former impossible to really judge, the latter easy, which is what I think most people selected. Me too.
> Firebird
> Rite of Spring
> Petrushka
> ...


Hello I heard Les Siecles play Le Sacre and Boulanger's Faust et Helene at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh for the Festival in August. I enjoyed his live recording of the Stravinsky but I have to admit hearing 
Thomas Søndergård and the RSNO storm through Le Sacre last Saturday here in Glasgow was more thrilling.


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## Scherzi Cat (8 mo ago)

Along with the first three ballets and the violin concerto, I had to add “other” for the Scherzo Fantastique, and Fireworks. It was these very early works that caught the attention of Diaghilev and started Stravinsky on his way to writing The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Of course I get why Firebird, Petrushka and the Rite are so popular. They are wonderful music. But it baffles me why so many think of them as Stravinsky's greatest. He went on the compose so many seminal - and far less derivative (well, maybe this doesn't apply to the Rite) - works that achieve so much with so little by way of gestures. They are where the magic is, surely?


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## Xisten267 (Sep 2, 2018)

Added a list of the top ten most voted works of the poll in the first post. I'll keep updating the numbers of the list as new votes appear.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

CnC Bartok said:


> 'Twas a tongue-in-cheek comment, but never mind.......


Sorry about my knee-jerk reaction, but TC has a long history of many, many members making snide, snarky comments concerning serial, and other 20th century classical music forms.

So much so, that many valuable members left the forums because they didn't want to deal with it.

Thankfully, it's gotten substantially better over the last few years.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Simon Moon said:


> Sorry about my knee-jerk reaction, but TC has a long history of many, many members making snide, snarky comments concerning serial, and other 20th century classical music forms.
> 
> So much so, that many valuable members left the forums because they didn't want to deal with it.
> 
> Thankfully, it's gotten substantially better over the last few years.


I try to avoid snide, it tends to irritate.....! I have been on the receiving end myself, and it irks.

The half-serious point of my comment was that actually I find the Canticles among the most readily accessible serial pieces I know, and added to that, I believe Stravinsky wanted it played at his own funeral? So I very much doubt he was being obtuse in doing so, it clearly must have meant a lot to him as a piece. And I also suppose it could be seen as an excellent way in to the weird and whacky world of the atonal, as it is one of those pieces that utterly destroys the tired argument that it's all "mathsy and clever and pseudo-intellectual Viagra", and in reality it is fundamentally about human emotion. Rather like Schoenberg's Trio, or Moses und Aron......
.
Clever bloke, was our Igor. Oh, and really chuffed to see the Symphony of Psalms doing so well!


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## Scherzi Cat (8 mo ago)

As of this moment, 35 people voted and only 28 voted for The Rite of Spring. That means 7 people don't think it is among Stravinsky's five best works. Interesting but difficult to reconcile for me.


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## Floeddie (8 mo ago)

I am not familiar with all of these works, but I have always loved The Firebird & The Rite of Spring. I'm also familiar with Petrushka & Dumbarton Oaks, and I do enjoy them. You've given me another list to explore. So much music and so little time.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I think Stravinsky polls should be either for "Stravinsky A" (the composer before 1914) or the real distinctive composer, "Stravinsky B" (the composer after 1914). As things stand Stravinsky polls seem always to end up choosing early masterpieces because the majority voting do not really like the music of the distinctive and mature composer. Fair enough but such results often seem to rather blur recommendations from within a wonderful and very influential body of music that Stravinsky produced.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I think you are in a minority believing that "Stravinsky B" is more distinctive.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Kreisler jr said:


> I think you are in a minority believing that "Stravinsky B" is more distinctive.


And should that matter to me? 

Also, a minority within which group? TC members, music lovers, critics, music historians, composers?

Ask yourself which composer was the more influential on the way music developed in his time and which is the more distinctive and recognisable? I would also invite you to ask yourself which does the most for you but I suspect we would disagree on the answer to that question of personal taste! Don't get me wrong, I love the three early masterpieces. I am also fascinated by the story they tell of the slow development of the mature and great composer.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

It should matter as possible explanation to your expressed puzzlement at the "popular position" that disagrees with yours. 

Apart from the fact that the division with about one decade before your cut and 5 decades afterwards seems quite a bit of cheating, I think the impression expressed by someone else in another thread, namely that Stravinsky changed styles in an opportunist fashion to such an extent to be hardly distinctive at all, applies to "B" mostly.
I think if one makes the cut ca. 1925, after Les Noces, A (earlier) is the more influential composer. 1920s/30s Neoclassicism was too broad a movement to claim Stravinsky dominated it and most of his postwar music is niche to this day. And speaking of niche, the "newest/trendsetting music" in the 1950s was Stockhausen, Boulez or Cage or whatever, not late Stravinsky.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Kreisler jr said:


> *It should matter as possible explanation to your expressed puzzlement at the "popular position" that disagrees with yours.*
> 
> Apart from the fact that the division with about one decade before your cut and 5 decades afterwards seems quite a bit of cheating, I think the impression expressed by someone else in another thread, namely that Stravinsky changed styles in an opportunist fashion to such an extent to be hardly distinctive at all, applies to "B" mostly.
> I think if one makes the cut ca. 1925, after Les Noces, A (earlier) is the more influential composer. 1920s/30s Neoclassicism was too broad a movement to claim Stravinsky dominated it and most of his postwar music is niche to this day. And speaking of niche, the "newest/trendsetting music" in the 1950s was Stockhausen, Boulez or Cage or whatever, not late Stravinsky.


I don't get that argument. Sorry.

For the rest, I can think of few composers who had a more distinctive voice through most of their careers than Stravinsky - Beethoven would be the main one - and I have seen many post similar opinions to this here over time (for what that's worth). Your use of words paint you as a convinced Stravinsky sceptic and you are certainly not alone in that. I thing we just disagree fundamentally on this one. I can live with that and hope you can, too.


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## Doublestring (Sep 3, 2014)

Le Sacre du printemps
Symphony of Psalms 
Petrushka
L'Histoire du soldat 
Les Noces


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Enthusiast said:


> I don't get that argument. Sorry.


Just remember it when our dear KJ expresses an "unpopular opinion" of his own.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I find his Suite for Small Orchestra 1 the most likeable work. Like his Octet for winds. I don't listen to Rite of Spring anymore, but it made a huge impact on me before.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Curious that IS's 6-minute cantata *Babel* from 1944 hasn't been mentioned by any TCer thus far.


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