MASTERWORKS 4
PULCINELLA SUITE IGOR STRAVINSKY: Born: June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Saint Petersburg, Russia Died: April 6, 1971, in New York City Work Composed: 1919–20 (original ballet); 1922 (suite); revised 1949 World Premiere: Ballet on May 15, 1920, in Paris, Ernest Ansermet conducting; Suite on December 22, 1922, in Boston, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux conducting Performance History: The DSSO performs music from the ballet Pulcinella for the first time on the Masterworks Series this evening. Instrumentation: Two flutes (second doubling piccolo), two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, trumpet, trombone and strings. After Stravinsky enjoyed a great triumph with his ballet The Firebird and after the scandal of The Rite of Spring, he made a complete about-face with his ballet Pulcinella. Shortly after the end of World War I Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of Les Ballets Russes, approached Stravinsky with a commission for a ballet based on an early 18th-century commedia dell’arte libretto and music attributed to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736). More recent research has found that some of the themes may have come from other composers: Domenico Gallo (1730-1768), Unico Wilhelm, Count van Wassenaer
“PULCINELLA WAS MY DISCOVERY OF THE PAST, THE EPIPHANY THROUGH WHICH THE WHOLE OF MY LATE WORK BECAME POSSIBLE. IT WAS A BACKWARD LOOK, OF COURSE—THE FIRST OF MANY LOVE AFFAIRS IN THAT DIRECTION—BUT IT WAS A LOOK IN THE MIRROR, TOO.”
16 DULUTH SUPERIOR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Obdam (1692-1766), Carlo Ignazio Monza (c. 1680-1739) and Alessandro Parisotti (1853-1913). Because Pergolesi was so popular in his day these other composers would attribute their compositions to him so they would be received more favorably. Stravinsky did not initially embrace the idea of using Pergolesi’s music, but after he studied some scores that Diaghilev had found in the libraries of Naples and London he changed his mind. By adapting the older music with modern rhythms, cadences and harmonies, Pulcinella marks the beginning of Stravinsky’s neoclassical period. He wrote, “Pulcinella was my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible. It was a backward look, of course—the first of many love affairs in that direction—but it was a look in the mirror, too.” Pulcinella was a traditional character of the Neapolitan stage in the early 18th century. Stravinsky’s one-act ballet features Pulcinella, his girlfriend Pimpinella, his friend Furbo, Prudenza and Rosetta, Florindo and Cloviello. The story begins with Florindo and Cloviello serenading Prudenza and Rosetta. The women, unimpressed, shower the suitors with water and Prudenza’s father chases them away. Then we see Rosetta dancing for Pulcinella and they kiss. Pimpinella sees this and breaks them up. Florindo and Cloviello arrive and being jealous of Pulcinella, they beat him up. Pulcinella is stabbed, but this is all staged in order to get Pimpinella to forgive him. Furbo arrives disguised as a magician and resurrects Pulcinella. Pimpinella forgives Pulcinella, Prudenza and Rosetta succumb to the charms of Florindo and Cloviello and the ballet ends with the marriage of the three couples. The Suite from Pulcinella is a pared-down version of the ballet and replaces the singing roles with instruments. The suite consists of eight movements compared with 21 in the ballet, and it opens with a short Sinfonia that is perhaps the most well known of the movements. Next is a Serenata, an interpretation of traditional Sicilian rhythms, followed by a Scherzino in two contrasting parts. The vivacious Tarantella, a Neapolitan dance said to ward off the effects of a tarantula bite, leads directly into the Toccata. Toccatas are usually instrumental showpieces;
