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"Years ago, George Balanchine suggested that I choreograph Stravinsky's Jeu de Cartes, not as a ballet about a card game but as an abstraction. I wasn't interested. But when I heard the score recently, I was struck by its jazzy vitality, and I've decided to take Mr. B.'s advice."— Peter MartinsIgor Stravinsky (1882-1971) entered law school in 1901, at the age of 19. That year he also gave his first public piano recital and began studying piano and composition with Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg. He was to become, before his death, one of the greatest composers and musical innovators of the 20th century, mastering musical styles from Romanticism to Neoclassicism to Serialism. Stravinsky came to the attention of Sergei Diaghilev in 1910, who asked him to orchestrate two pieces by Chopin for the ballet Les Sylphides, and then to compose an original ballet. The result, Firebird, projected both Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and the young composer to worldwide acclaim. His ballets for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes also included Petrushka, choreographed by Michael Fokine, The Rite of Spring, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, and Apollon Musagète (Apollo), choreographed by George Balanchine. His music has been used in over 30 ballets originating with New York City Ballet from 1948 through 1992, including Danses Concertantes, Orpheus, The Cage, Agon, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, Rubies, Symphony in Three Movements, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Concerto for Two Solo Pianos, Suite from L'histoire du Soldat, Concertino, and Jeu de Cartes. He composed Jeu de Cartes (Card Game: A Ballet in Three Deals) for the first Stravinsky Festival mounted by George Balanchine at the Metropolitan Opera in 1937. In the original version dancers were costumed to represent the four suits in a deck of cards, and the joker was the central character.
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