Stravinsky Gift

We had a tremendous time this evening at the Royal Concert Hall where we went to see Stravinsky's Firebird. This was Alasdair's Christmas present to James and he and Cat came along too. We had great seats right in the middle of the stalls. I'm not Stravinsky's biggest fan but this was a Naked Classics concert and I really enjoyed having it all explained during the first half of the performance; I felt that I understood it a lot better. I have been to several of these Naked Classics concerts before and I always enjoy them. Stravinsky, like many composers, had inserted a couple of folk songs into his work. My favourite part of the whole thing was the tune at the very end when the evil Kashchei has died and everyone celebrates. I learned tonight that this was in fact one of the folk songs which shows that I am more of a traditionalist than Stravinsky, although I love the way that Stravinsky has arranged it. It is a great finale full of rejoicing and I have decided that I will play it on the day that I retire from teaching.