Firebird Suite – Excerpt – Finale

The Fragile Album Tour
Igor Stravinsky – b. St Petersburg – 17.6.1882 – d. New York – 6.4.1971

Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He shot to stardom following the premier of his new piece in Paris in 1910. It came as a surprise and shock to the system and public at first, but went on to be much loved. Stravinsky later made it into an orchestral suite for performance in the concert halls with ballets. The piece is based on a Russian folk tale about a magical glowing bird that Prince Ivan is searching for. The firebird is imprisoned in a castle with a beautiful princess. Ivan rescues the bird and the princess but then his own sister poisons him and the princess. Luckily the firebird flies to the fountain of youth and with magic water brings Prince Ivan and his beloved princess back to life.

YES fans have always delighted in this piece of music, and like Steve Howe said earlier, it really did introduce beautiful classical music to the YES fan, who may have not been aware of such music before. The well-known work starts with the serene horn solo at the beginning then the beautiful harps glide in. Gradually all the instruments come into play and the piece builds up, gets louder and louder with the full orchestration, finishing with a grand flourish, making the ending a joyful and happy moment, a statement hard to forget.

With YES leaving the 2001 theme behind in July 1971, only a few months later, YES it appears would begin using the new intro music, the Firebird excerpt, on the very first gig that Rick Wakeman played for YES. This was at the Queens Hall, Barnstable, England, 24 September 1971, on what was the YES Fragile tour, to promote the brand-new album Fragile, released in November the same year.

No mention of the Firebird but the appearance of Rick Wakeman would have taken president here. Interesting take on the album title of ‘Fragile Yes’. Music paper cuttings likely from the Melody Maker in the UK.

For the next seven years YES would open with Stravinsky’s – Firebird Suite, often described on albums as the Excerpt from Firebird Suite, a beautiful uplifting piece of music filled with hope and joy, created when Igor was only 27 years old. YES similarly producing incredible music in their 20s, some of their very best. YES music surely was an equal to the great classical compositions? I’ll leave that there for all to contemplate.

An interesting aside, Elvis Presley, an artist loved by Jon and his brother in his early years would also begin to open-up his shows from 1972 with the Firebird Suite. YES of course did go on to use other classical themes but this section would encapsulate a YES show better than all that would follow, clearly a favourite with all the band members.

An early 1970s UK music paper cutting, likely from the Melody Maker.

The cover of one of the early UK compilation albums that contained the Firebird Suite that may have been owned by Jon Anderson. (RCA Records/DW).

The classical compilation album mentioned in the cutting above, and probably answered by the YES office at the time has now disappeared and is not in this YES collection, I do however have this one shown, for visual purposes. This double compilation album was one of the first versions heard of the finally chosen suite owned in and around 1969 by Jon and YES. This was obviously replaced with the ones from the 1970’s shown here in the article, which were released in single album format soon after. Plenty of releases had different orchestras and conductors but this version obviously stuck a chord you may say, as it is the same version featuring the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

A cutting from a UK music paper, which gives a sense of the atmosphere at this concert. 16/17 November 1973 for the Topographic Oceans tour. I think this says it all really, as the lights fade then Firebird Suite, then – cheering!

Topographic Oceans live shown on this South American poster magazine called Popster, who accidentally show the image the wrong way round! (DW)

← PreviousNext →

Click here to read more of David’s articles & essays on YEShistory.