Igor Stravinsky

Television (Full Length) – 1961

Russian composer Igor Stravinsky visited Aotearoa in 1961 for a series of performances with New Zealand's National Orchestra. This co-production between the NFU and the NZ Broadcasting Service shows Stravinsky at the Wellington Town Hall, guiding the orchestra through the finale of his work, The Firebird Suite. Stravinsky has his own particular style of conducting: no baton, and emphatic hand and arm movements. The applause is rapturous. Stravinsky appears delighted with the occasion; the orchestra (later renamed the NZ Symphony Orchestra) shower him with flowers.

There’s no more fitting description of the excited atmosphere in the Auckland Town Hall as we waited for Stravinsky — Stravinsky himself! — to appear, than ’electric’. It seemed that magic was in the air and when the magician himself brought his Firebird to life, the effects of the spell he cast have lasted with me to this day.
– Radio New Zealand listener John remembers the thrill of seeing Igor Stravinsky live in 1961, RNZ website, 6 March 2017