The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, conducted by Mikko Franck, performs Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite", in the version from 1919. Excerpt from the concert recorded live on 26 April 2019 at the Philharmonie Paris.

Debussy and Stravinsky met for the first time at the premiere of the Russian composer's Firebird Suite. In response to the question "What do you think of my Firebird Suite?", Debussy simply replied: "Well, you have to start somewhere!" Stravinsky later remarked: "Harsh, but fair". "Start" was perhaps not the right word when considering Stravinsky's overall career, but it may certainly be considered a start in terms of his rising celebrity. A commissioned work by Diaghilev, Stravinsky's Firebird Suite was an immediate success, and established a fruitful relationship between the Russian composer and the Parisian Ballets Russes.

The work's story, an adaptation of Russian folklore by Michel Fokine (also the work's choreographer), was loosely inspired by an Oriental tale, a previous source of inspiration for Catterino Cavos in 1822, a Venetian composer working in St Petersburg. It is a ferocious and fantastic fairytale, allowing the music to use its charms in full, the orchestral timbres to glow, and the refined harmonies to shine. It is often said that the Firebird Suite displays the lessons learned from Rimsky-Korsakov. Stravinsky had indeed already noticed the effect of the trombone glissandi, as used in Kashchey the Deathless, the opera-ballet Mlada, and also Schoenberg's symphonic poem Pelléas et Mélisande. However, the work's immediately recognisable instrumental virtuosity and the rhythmic imagination can only have been imagined by Stravinsky. Initially destined for the ballet, the Firebird Suite is also a formidable concert work. However, Stravinsky created three separate orchestral suites (in 1911, 1919 and 1945), a more sobre instrumentation for the final two versions: the version performed here is from 1919.

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