Stravinsky: Petrushka Suite Igor Stravinsky & Philharmonic Orchestra of New York

• 1 Legerdemain Scene 01:30
• 2 Russian Dance 02:23
• 3 Petrushka's Room 04:00
• 4 Dance of the Wet-Nurses 02:17
• 5 Dance of the Peasant and the Bear 01:07
• 6 Dance of the Gypsy Girls 00:51
• 7 Dance of the Coachmen and the Grooms 02:05
• 8 The Masqueraders 01:44
• 9 Introduction 00:52
• 10 Danses (Corps de ballet & Ballerine) 04:01
• 11 Pantomime 02:05
• 12 Pas de deux 02:48
• 13 Pantomime 00:32
• 14 Variations (Danseur & Ballerine) 02:21
• 15 Pantomime 00:27
• 16 Danses (Corps de ballet) 01:10
• 17 Apothéose 02:08
• 18 I. Sinfonia 06:03
• 19 II. Danses suisses 07:23
• 20 III. Scherzo 03:29
• 21 IV. Pas de deux (Adagio - Variation - Coda) 06:31
• Total Runtime 55:47

Info for Stravinsky: Petrushka Suite

Igor Stravinsky’s breakthrough to fame arrived when he embarked on a string of collaborations with the ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev, whose Ballets Russes, launched in Paris in 1909, quickly became identified with the cutting edge of the European arts scene. Stravinsky’s first Diaghilev project was modest: a pair of orchestrations for the 1909 Ballets Russes production of Chopin’s Les Sylphides. The production was a success, but some critics complained that the troupe’s choreographic and scenic novelty was not matched by its conservative musical score. Diaghilev set about addressing this by commissioning new ballet scores, of which the first was Stravinsky’s Firebird, premiered in 1910. Thus began a collaboration that would include some of the most irreplaceable items in the history of the early 20th-century stage: Petrushka (1911), Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring, 1913), Le Rossignol (The Nightingale, 1914), Pulcinella (1920), Mavra (1922), Reynard (1922), Les Noces (The Wedding, 1923), Oedipus Rex (1927), and Apollo (Apollon musagète, 1928).

Stravinsky, who worked on Petrushka from August 1910 to May 1911, later wrote of how the idea for the piece coalesced: I had in my mind a distinct picture of a pup- pet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggi. The orches- tra in turn retaliates with menacing trumpet-blasts. The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet. ... One day I leapt for joy. I had indeed found my title — Petrushka, the immortal and un- happy hero of every fair in all countries.

At first the score seemed to be taking the form of a concert work. Diaghilev noted this with distress when he visited Stravinsky to check on the status of their collaboration, which he thought was to be about springtime celebrations in pagan Russia. But once Stravinsky played him the first two movements, with their evocative quotations and bitonal bite, it was Diaghilev’s turn to jump for joy. He immediately sensed the choreographic possibilities in Petrushka and was happy to postpone The Rite of Spring.

The scenario for Petrushka unrolls through four scenes set in St. Petersburg in the 1830s. In the first, crowds stroll through the Shrove-tide Fair on a sunny winter day as musicians com- pete to entertain them. A showman introduces the characters of a puppet show he is going to present: Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Moor.

The puppets astonish everyone by stepping out from their little box theater and dancing all on their own. The second scene takes place in Petrushka’s cell, where our principal puppet, now imbued with human feelings, bemoans his awkwardness. He loves the Ballerina, but she finds him repellent, and as the scene closes Petrushka hurls himself against the wall in despair. Scene Three is set in the Moor’s cell, where that brutal character, decked out in his finery, proves irresistible to the Ballerina. Petrushka rushes in on their love scene, insanely jealous, but the Moor throws him out. In the concluding tableau we are back at the fair, in the evening, where colorful characters again roam about. A commotion breaks out in the puppet-master’s little theater; in another jealous encounter, Petrushka is slain by the Moor, and the latter escapes with the Ballerina. Petrushka dies in the snow, but the puppet-master assures the on- lookers not to worry — that it was nothing more than a puppet made of wood and sawdust. The crowds withdraw, but in the end Petrushka’s ghost gets the final word, jeering sardonically from the roof of the little theater.

In 1947, after Petrushka had long been established as a classic of ballet repertoire, Stravinsky revised his score, making its orchestration smaller and otherwise refining the piece in ways that seem biased more toward concert performance than toward the descriptive style of the ballet stage. In essence, what he initially conceived as a concert piece evolved back into one. However, this concert returns to the composer’s initial orchestration, which is inventive and colorful to the point of extravagance.

The New York Philharmonic Connection: Igor Stravinsky was a familiar figure at the New York Philharmonic as both a composer and conductor. He led the Orchestra in performances of his own works on nearly 40 occasions over four decades, beginning with his first American conducting appearance on January 8, 1925 (which included a suite from another of his ballets, The Firebird). Two days later, he conducted a Philharmonic program of his works that included selections from Petrushka, which he returned to with the Orchestra on a dozen occasions, including five complete performances of the 1911 version of the ballet score performed here.

The Philharmonic feted its long relation- ship with the composer in 1966 with A Festival of Stravinsky: His Heritage and His Legacy. Stravinsky was in attendance for the festival and conducted the Philharmomic one last time at the final concert of the monthlong festival, on July 23, 1966.

Visit the New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives at archives.nyphil.org to see programs, photos, and planning papers for the 1966 Stravinsky festival, along with thousands of other items dating back to the Orchestra’s founding in 1842.

Philharmonic Orchestra of New York
Igor Stravinsky, conductor

Digitally remastered

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