Stravinsky composed Feu d'artifice as a wedding present for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's daughter Nadezhda and Maximilian Steinberg, who had married a few days before her father's death.
[1][2] Feu d'artifice helped develop Stravinsky's reputation as a composer, although it is not considered representative of his mature work.
The work has some hints of bitonality but is for the most part similar in style to that of Rimsky-Korsakov who, at the time, was his teacher and mentor.
[1][4] However, Diaghilev had already commissioned Stravinsky to orchestrate two pieces of Chopin (the Grande valse brillante and Nocturne in A flat) for the ballet Les Sylphides.
[5] The work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes (2nd doubling cor anglais), 3 clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 6 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 percussionists (cymbals, bass drum, triangle, and glockenspiel), 2 harps, celesta, and strings.