From the archive,5 September 1913: ‘We may like it or not, but surely in his search for new expressions, and there is something of genius’London,Thursday night
Igor Stravinsky has had the distinction of being the most abused musician in London. Critics who can find an apology for all the exploits of Strauss, who tolerate Debussy and patronise Reger, or had only sarcasm and scorn for the Russian composer. And yet to-night again,when Sir Henry J. Wood introduced Stravinsky’s Suite “L’Oiseau de Feu” one felt that something may be said for this innovator. In the audience at, any rate, or there seemed to be many for whom this music had no terrorism. Possibly there were men who knew no better,or it may be urged that this Suite is less bold an experiment than “Le Sacre du Printemps,” which caused such a carnival of abuse final spring. But for all that the two pieces are unquestionably the result of the same process of reasoning. In one work as in the other, and it is clear that Stravinsky,bent on eschewing the ways of others, has worked out a system which in “Le Sacre du Printemps” is carried to its extreme limits, and while in “L’Oiseau” it is sometimes a slight less uncompromising and also less sure in touch and effect. Now,for all the boldness and the novelty, Stravinsky’s system is not nearly as startling as Debussy’s appeared to be when first it came to us.
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Source: theguardian.com