Chanson russe (1922/1938)

arranged for cello for and piano by I.Stravinsky and D.Markevitch

The one-act opera buffa Mavra, which was first performed by the Ballets Russes at the Paris Opéra in 1922, was one of the Stravinsky’s few failures. Few critics liked it, including some of those who understood what Stravinsky was trying to do here: the idea was to restore, or at least recall, the tradition of Russian opera in the Italian style which had prevailed before composers of the nationalist tendency like Mussorgsky, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov had relegated it to history. The score is dedicated to the memory of Glinka and Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky’s favourite Russian composers at the time, and Pushkin, the author of the story on which the libretto is based.

It was no doubt in the intention of cutting his losses that eight years after the disastrous first performances of Mavra, which had attracted little interest from opera houses in the meantime, Stravinsky sanctioned an instrumental arrangement of part of the opera for Jack Hylton’s jazz band. Hylton somewhat unwisely chose to present it at the Paris Opéra, where it too was, in Stravinsky’s words, “an awful flop.” Rather more realistic are the composer’s arrangements for violin and piano (with Dushkin) and cello and piano (with Markevitch) of the aria sung by the heroine Parasha at the begining of the first scene.­ In witty rhythmic disagreement with the accompaniment she complains how she misses her handsome hussar lover whom she hasn’t seen for a week – and whom she is about to introduce into her mother’s household disguised as a cook.