can already sense the local wind blowing against Stravinsky's emerging musical personality. The no less brilliantly ephemeral Fireworks, with its subtle fusion of tonal and octatonic harmonies, had to wait another year for its public performance, again under Ziloti, in January 1910. But it was almost certainly tried out at some time in early 1909, perhaps with the Conservatory orchestra, since Stravinsky revised the orchestration extensively in the summer of 1909. But if he himself was dissatisfied with his efforts in this case, others were more impressed. The first sign was that Diaghilev invited him to contribute a pair of orchestrations to Mikhail Fokine's ballet Chopiniana, which he was including in his 1909 Paris season under the new title Les Sylphides. Stravinsky had been sketching an opera on Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Emperor and the Nightingale, with a libretto by his friend Stepan Mitusov, since at least the previous autumn. But he hastily put this work to one side, and completed the Chopin arrangements well in time for the Paris premiere at the start of June. Meanwhile Ziloti must have seen, or at least heard about, these pieces, since he too now commissioned a pair of arrangements, of Beethoven's and Musorgsky's settings of the Song of the Flea from Faust, for a Goethe in Music concert in St Petersburg in November 1909. That gave Stravinsky time to write the first act of Solovey (The Nightingale) during the summer. He then orchestrated the Musorgsky song and was probably just about to start on the Beethoven when a telegram arrived at Ustilug which was to change his life and with it the whole course of 20th-century music. The ballet element of Diaghilev's 1909 season, though brilliantly successful as dance and design, had been criticized by the Paris press for its lack of any comparable musical novelty. Diaghilev now proposed to answer this criticism by commissioning, among other works, a ballet on the most typically, exotically Russian fairy tale he or his collaborators could think of, Zhar'-ptitsa (The Firebird). The process by which this commission eventually reached the largely untried Stravinsky is still obscure (it certainly came by way of Diaghilev's resident composer, Nikolay Tcherepnin, and Lyadov, and possibly also Stravinsky's old counterpoint teacher Akimenko). Diaghilev's telegram, indeed, was no more than a sounding-out, and the commission was probably only confirmed in early December. By that time Stravinsky had already sketched some music, and may even have had musical discussions with Fokine about the relationship between the music and the action, though the essential details of the staging were probably in place by the time he came on the scene.1898Tarantellafor PianoNot published1902Scherzofor PianoStorm Cloud (A. Pushkin)Romance for Voice and PianoNot published1904Sonate f-sharp Minor (mp3 - score)for PianoCantatafor mixed Choir and PianoNot published; lostThe Mushrooms go to WarBallad for Bass and PianoNot published1907Symphony in E-flat Major, op.1 (mp3 - score)Faun et bergere (Faun and Shepherdess) (A. Pushkin), op.2 (mp3 - score)Three Songsfor Mezzo Soprano and OrchestraPastorale (score)Vocalise for Soprano and PianoTranscriptions:for Soprano and Wind Quartet, 1923;for Violin and Wind Quartet, 1933;for Violin and Piano, 19331908Deux