Chapter 7 - Sergei Diaghilev and Stravinsky: From World of Art to Ballets Russes

Summary

Born at the twilight of imperial Russia, Igor Stravinsky inevitably partook of its cultural conventions and rituals, moving closely with particular individuals, associations and vogues in what Alexandre Benois called ‘that hysterical and spiritually tormented time’.¹ Among Stravinsky’s many connections in St Petersburg, for example, was the group of artists, writers and musicians known as the World of Art (Mir iskusstva) which, undoubtedly, played a formative role in his musical career.² True, some observers are hesitant to accept the proximity, finding that ‘there is no real evidence that [Stravinsky] paid attention to the journal [Mir iskusstva] at that time or hankered after any particular association with its authors’.³ On the other hand, Stravinsky’s long friendship and professional liaison with the leaders of the World of Art (Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, Sergei Diaghilev, Nicholas Roerich), his intense collaboration with Roerich on The Rite of Spring at Talashkino (the estate of Princess Maria Tenisheva, primary financier of the World of Art journal)⁴ and his close alliance with the Ballets Russes – which, in many ways, was the extension of the aesthetic platform of the World of Art – would seem to furnish evidence that Stravinsky did, indeed, appreciate the cultural consistency of the World of Art.