Stravinsky and Chanel: a mystery of two worlds

I like composing music more than the music itself.

                                                             I. Stravinsky

 The destiny of the world-famous musician of genius Igor Stravinsky, whose mother was born in the town of Ustyluh in Volyn, reflected all the challenges of the time, its social and cultural crises. Yet another talented Ukrainian left his motherland to win the world that accepted lost souls with open arms. However, the real challenge for Stravinsky was the meeting with the French fashion designer Coco Chanel and their romance remains an amazing and mysterious event of the 20th century.

A lot would happen before that crucial meeting. Stravinsky would never forget the lesson of composition taught by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whom Stravinsky considered not only his teacher but his spiritual mentor during all his life. His teacher advised the young man not to enter the conservatory due to Stravinsky’s distinctive gift. The latter wanted to be Rimsky-Korsakov’s pupil and considered him “a generous man living in an unaesthetic period of Rus-sian history.” However, while his father was an opera singer known in St. Petersburg and his mother was an equally famous pianist, the young musician needed to prove himself on his own. Ironically, the musicians’ family noticed his gift when he was studying law at the St. Petersburg University. The future composer, just like any creative person, needed to establish good relations with his older colleagues. Igor Stravinsky would describe the moral of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg in his Dialogs: “I often think that the fact that I was born and educated in a town that is rather neo-Italian than just Slavic or Eastern had to partially determine the cultural direction of my further life.” His meeting with Sergei Diaghilev helped shape his own character, his sense of rhythm and self-confidence. He has to be thanked for the successful musical composition of the ballet The Firebird in 1910, which opened the door to the world musical Olympus.

Later Stravinsky would come across Diaghilev outside Bolshevik Russia. His family relations and his obvious gift put Stravinsky at the center stage of St. Petersburg’s musical life and made him popular among the creative people and the elite.

Five years before The Firebird’s premiere an equally important event happened in Stravinsky’s life. He met Kateryna Nosenko in his native Volyn. They fell in love from the first sight and got engaged in less than a year. They celebrated their wedding in the village of Omelne, in the mansion of Dmytro Nosenko, who was the close relative of Kateryna’s family. For Stravinsky Ukraine was much more than just his mother’s homeland. Every summer, starting from 1907, the composer wrote his music in Ustyluh. There he created his first masterpiece — the fantasia for the orchestra The Firework. Later he wrote the above-mentioned Firebird and, probably, his best known composition from his early period called The Sacred Spring. Foreseeing that he wouldn’t stay there forever, the composer and his brother Yuri planted a garden and a linden alley leading to their house. Even today his music can be heard from the windows of his house reminding people about their famed compatriot. From 1910 on the Stravinsky family lived in France and Switzerland. The young artist didn’t want to come back to Russia, where creative work was getting more and more complicated. When asked about his moving to Europe the composer gave a clear and laconic answer: “I did it for the freedom of creative activity and my wife’s health.”

Yet the Russian and Ukrainian motifs appear in this period of Stravinsky’s creative work and make the scandalous and revolutionary work called The Sacred Spring shocking with its novel concept. It also gained him his first international renown. It was played for the first time in 1913 in Paris. However, even the local audience was unprepared for what they saw and heard. A year earlier the audience didn’t understand the artist in another equally significant place. Stravinsky would recall it with humor: “In 1912 in Berlin, during the premiere of The Firebird and Punch, the keiser and the generals were exited by Russian ballet. However, I knew beforehand that they would say it was too noisy. I wanted to ask: where exactly?”

The Parisians reacted to Stravinsky’s work with jeers and shouts. The audience was close to fighting and those on the balconies added fuel to the fire by shouting to the grand ladies and their cavaliers: “ignoramuses from the 16th century!” The melodies, overloaded with the discords, the incredibly complicated rhythms, the expressive story of the collision between the collective and the individual and its cruel destruction couldn’t leave indifferent even prepared spectators, so rare in that auditorium. Among the latter, in the noisy darkness of the Champs Elysees Theater, from time to time broken by the light turn on according to Diaghilev’s order (to calm down the “barbarian” audience) there was the famous fashion designer Coco Chanel. She intently watched the chaos on the stage and around it, and was fascinated by the person that caused the ruckus. Coco could smell everything new and topical, so the dissatisfaction of the audience couldn’t hide Stravinsky’s talent from her. Despite the designer’s attempts to see the brave genius they didn’t meet. Stravinsky was too worried by his failure and had neither the desire nor spiritual force for chatter. The two charismatic persons didn’t meet and their roads diverged for a while.

Seven years after the scandalous premiere of The Sacred Spring Stravinsky and his family lived in poverty and didn’t have any official shelter. At the time he lived in a small dusty flat in Paris with worn out furniture where he constantly felt uncomfortable. This situation was typical for many emigrants from Eastern Europe, readily accepted by poets, artists and rich sponsors. Coco Chanel watched the composer all the time and chose the right moment to invite him to her villa in a Paris suburb. Stravinsky accepted her invitation as he realized that it was a great opportunity to resolve their daily problems. On the other hand, he had no choice, which upset him. He grew up in a patriarchal environment and was used to the fact that women obeyed men. Chanel embodied the freedom and independence that attracted the composer despite his inner resistance. He didn’t hesitate to move to the mansion and allowed her to be his sponsor. His four children and his pregnant wife Kateryna moved with him and appeared between the two leading figures of world culture.

Chanel’s enormous house, full of works of modern art and decorated in black and white indicated that its owner was a strong, erudite and successful woman. Her mansion differed from their Volyn house outwardly and inwardly: despite the modern decor its atmosphere was cold and comfortless. However, the kids liked the large rooms and the cozy garden where they could play as much as they wanted. Stravinsky was provided with a separate room to write his masterpieces, with an expensive piano, exclusive table and minimalistic decor in order not to distract him from his creative work. It looked like everything contributed to the creative atmosphere, aside fate.

Their stay at Chanel’s villa reminds one of the old saying: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Against his will Stravinsky was charmed by Chanel who benefited as compared to Kateryna. How could Stravinsky’s sick and modest wife compete with the open, lively and extremely modern Coco, who dictated fashion in Paris? However, despite her tuberculosis Kateryna embodied ease and candor whereas Chanel with her cigarette demonstratively opposed it, as if she wanted to say that: “Everything I have is artificial yet perfect.”

Though Stravinsky’s family was near him he couldn’t resist Chanel’s demonic “charm.” Stravinsky’s wife gradually realized that there was a secret passion between them. However, nothing could be done as the music was essential and she had to bear the rest. Kateryna’s Ukrainian character didn’t let her make a scandal and she humbly accepted Chanel’s perfidy, Stravinsky’s open cool and the silent threat of the dark colors of the house. Even the presents Coco gave her, including the famed perfume Chanel №5, couldn’t brighten her up as artificiality is always second to naturalness.

This spirit can somewhat be seen in the famous film Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky by Jan Kounen based on the novel by Chris Greenhalgh Coco and Igor, in which the author’s imagination developed on the historical facts. Yet we have no right to reproach the writer or the film director, as it’s difficult to fully reveal the real, hugely complex story. Kounen’s version slightly vulgarizes and simplifies Stravinsky’s life, labeling him as Russian and forgetting that Kateryna wasn’t Russian at all. The same goes for “chastushka” dances, icons and vodka that are cliches of the Russian culture typical for Europeans. The West also forgets that the Volyn cultural traditions weren’t weaker than the Petersburg ones, and they were closer to Europe from both historical and cultural perspectives. It’s symptomatic that Europe forgets about those traditions and often doesn’t want to get deeper into them, resorting to models and cliches.

It’s difficult to accept cliches when talking about such personalities as Stravinsky since there’s a danger to miss something essential. That is why we can easily develop another story without any passion, intimacy or the betrayal that modern people want to see everywhere. It’s unknown if Stravinsky managed to conquer the confident Chanel and betrayed the Kateryna that he loved with all his heart, and preferred the Ukrainian context that would always appear in Stravinsky’s works. The artist’s words about Chanel are consonant with this story: “This woman was shaped by the time and history, but she was one of those who helped forge the history itself. She had a perfect sense of style, she was always feminine without effort. It was very attractive. I’m sure I could have fallen in love with her but she would have probably eaten me for breakfast.” In general, the successful fashion designer sponsored Stravinsky and contributed to the development of his gift. Not only did she allow his family to live in her house but she constantly sent money to the composer. Finally, it’s hard to believe that this aid was free as cold-blooded Chanel knew the value of money and didn’t give it to anyone.

Even those biographers who knew them their whole lives cannot say for sure that Stravinsky and Chanel had close relations. The situation was differently presented by their friends, family and the heroes themselves. It’s known that Chanel liked obscuring her biography. That is why there always will be rumors about her childhood, the beginning of her career and her love affairs. The relations between Stravinsky and Chanel symbolize the historical and cultural changes, the meeting and separation of two great eras. Both of them lived a long life and died nearly the same year. The composer of genius finished his life in New York and before his death he managed to visit his dear Volyn where a museum was opened in his house. Chanel died from a heart attack in the exquisite Paris hotel, the Ritz, true to her taste for luxury and originality. They say that Stravinsky saw Chanel in his last years and they spent a long time recalling their time together. We can also say that they never met again and that short period of time when the two worlds were close will remain a mystery.