Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, Apollon musagète & Concerto for Strings in D Major Tapiola Sinfonietta & Masaaki Suzuki

• 1 I. Overture: Sinfonia 01:56
• 2 II. Serenata 02:49
• 3 III. Scherzino - Allegro - Andantino 04:19
• 4 IV. Tarantella 02:00
• 5 V. Toccata 00:56
• 6 VI. Gavotta - Variation No. 1 - Variation No. 2 03:50
• 7 VII. Vivo 01:29
• 8 VIII. Minuetto 02:22
• 9 IX. Finale 01:58
• 10 Tableau I: Prologue: The Birth of Apollo 04:54
• 11 Tableau II: Apollo's Variation 03:01
• 12 Tableau II: Pas d'action: Apollo and the Muses 04:24
• 13 Tableau II: Variation of Calliope 01:30
• 14 Tableau II: Variation of Polymnia 01:22
• 15 Tableau II: Variation of Terpsichore 01:43
• 16 Tableau II: Variation of Apollo 02:21
• 17 Tableau II: Pas de deux: Apollo and Terpsichore 03:48
• 18 Tableau II: Coda: Apollo and the Muses 03:23
• 19 Tableau II: Apotheosis: Apollo and the Muses 03:14
• 20 I. Vivace 05:48
• 21 II. Arioso: Andantino 02:58
• 22 III. Rondo: Allegro 03:42
• Total Runtime 01:03:47

Info for Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, Apollon musagète & Concerto for Strings in D Major

The Italian commedia dell’ arte of Pulcinella and the ancient Greek mythology of Apollon musagète might both seem far removed from the Russian roots of the works which had made Stravinsky’s reputation with the Ballets Russes. But that reputation – with The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring – had been established between 1909 and 1913 in France rather than in Russia. During the exceptionally turbulent years of the First World War and the Russian Revolution Stravinsky (living for the most part in Switzerland) had worked on such overtly ‘nationalist’ compositions as the Russian Peasant Songs and The Wedding (Les Noces). But his restless creative spirit was already seeking to distance itself from such explicitly Russian sources, not so much to reject them as to find newly imaginative ways of transforming their most essential technical features. With characteristically Stravinskian self-assurance, the carnival-like atmosphere of Pulcinella (written in 1919–20) moves the social ceremonials and rituals central to scores like The Rite of Spring and The Wedding into very different stylistic regions. At the age of 38, the expatriate Russian composer was well aware that he needed to take a radically fresh look at the traditions and techniques that had propelled him to such remarkable prominence in the pre-war world of contemporary music.

Tapiola Sinfonietta
Masaaki Suzuki, conductor

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