Stravinsky’s Firebird and Anna Clyne’s Woman of the Mountain

Pre-Concert Chat at 5:45 PM
Lawn Paver Bar

Anna Clyne

Woman of the Mountain
Sun Valley Music Festival Co-Commission

Igor Stravinsky

Suite from The Firebird (1919 revision)

Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, written to accompany Diaghilev’s ballet, showcases the composer’s extraordinary orchestral imagination alongside Russian folk influences. By turns shimmering and eerie, the music unfolds with rich color and atmosphere, building with a slow-burning intensity toward one of classical music’s most thrilling finales. Regarding Anna Clyne’s new orchestral work—co-commissioned by the Music Festival—the composer writes: “Woman of the Mountain evokes the journey of an extraordinary woman navigating the forces of the natural world in a quest for love, as she ascends to a mountain’s summit.”

Alasdair’s Take on the Program:

It was hearing the massive thunderclap that launches the Infernal Dance in Stravinsky’s Firebird that made me realize I wanted to devote my life to music.