Stravinsky: Petrouchka

If you listened to my show last week about Stravinsky’s ballet
The Firebird, you know that Stravinsky’s life was never the same
after the premiere of the ballet in 1910. Sergei Diaghilev, the
founder of the Ballets Russes and Stravinsky’s greatest
collaborator, said just before the premiere, “this man is on the
eve of celebrity.” Diaghilev was absolutely right, as The
Firebird made Stravinsky a Parisian household name practically
overnight. Of course, immediately everyone wanted to know what
was next. Stravinsky did too, and he was thinking that he needed
to stretch himself even more, as even though the Firebird had
caused a sensation, he still felt that it was too indebted to his
teachers of the past like Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov and other
Russian greats like Borodin or Mussorgsky. At first, Stravinsky
dreamed of a pagan Rite, but quickly he changed
course, wanting to write something that was NOT ballet
music, and in fact would be a concerto for Piano and Orchestra.
But instead of just a straight ahead abstract piece, Stravinsky
had yet another story in mind. This time it was this: “In
composing the music, I had in mind a distinct picture of a
puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of
the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios. The
orchestra 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.”


Diaghilev visited Stravinsky in Lausanne Switzerland expecting to
hear more about the pagan rituals Stravinsky had been so excited
about, but instead Stravinsky played him this strange piano
concerto. But Digahliev, ever the visionary, saw the potential in
this story and in this music for dance as well, and convinced
Stravinsky to turn the piano concerto into a ballet, and
Petrushka was born. Within a few months, Petrushka was written,
performed, and was yet another sensation. Today, we’ll talk all
about the brilliant music that Stravinsky composed for the
ballet, the integration of choreography and music, and the
radical changes that this music heralded for the western music
world.