Stravinsky's least-known masterpiece: Abraham and Isaac (1963)

Only an exceptionally gifted composer is able to keep track of the latest developments and innovations in modern music and incorporate them into his own musical idiom. Stravinsky was such an exceptionally gifted composer. It is often forgotten that towards the end of his life, he took a great interest in the high modernism of people like Pierre Boulez and Elliott Carter (composers whom Stravinsky greatly admired). Having always had a keen ear for the new and the innovative in music, Stravinsky probably felt that this high modernism was the direction in which art music was heading at that time. Thus, during the last 15 years of his life, Stravinsky composed in his own unique brand of twelve-tone serialism.

One of his finest serial works is Abraham and Isaac (finished in 1963), a sacred ballad for baritone and chamber orchestra. A concise, compact, aloof sounding, yet very beautiful and melodic masterpiece telling the biblical story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac. The vocal part is also highly refined and interesting, at times evoking Christian psalmodizing, at other times evoking Arabic chant. Strangely enough, this piece remains one of Stravinsky's most obscure, least-known and least-performed works. Undeservedly so - go listen to it.