Three Movements from Petrushka

Russian Dance

In Petrushka’s Cell

The Shrove-Tide Fair

Introducing a performance of his Three Movements from Petrushka in 1935, Stravinsky made a distinction between piano music and music for piano. “It is possible,” he said, “for musical ideas to be born in the abstract, before the composer has thought of any particular instrumentation for them.” If the idea is then scored for piano, that is music for piano. On the other hand, there is “music in which the ideas are suggested by a certain instrument and conditioned by its possibilities. If the piano has dictated the idea, this is piano music.”

Even the Petrushka ballet, which was first performed in Paris in 1911, is “piano music” in that sense - or some of it is. After completing The Firebird and seeing it through its first performance in Paris in 1910, Stravinsky settled in France for a while and instead of getting on with his next ballet for Diaghilev (which was to have been The Rite of Spring) he began a piece for piano and orchestra: “In composing the music,” he said, “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 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.”

Stravinsky had already selected the title for the piece - Petrushka being the Russian equivalent of Pierrot, “the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries” - when Diaghilev called on him in Lausanne to see how The Rite of Spring was progressing. On hearing the first two movement of the new piece Diaghilev immediately saw the ballet potential in them. Stravinsky agreed with him and the composer and the impresario together devised the setting and the basis of the action that would take place: the Shrovetide Fair in St Petersburg “with its crowds, its booths, the little traditional theatre, the character of the magician, with all his tricks; and the coming to the life of the dolls - Petrushka, his rival, and the dancer - and their love tragedy, which ends with Petrushka’s death.”

The first two of the Three Movements from Petrushka - which was commissioned by Artur Rubinstein in 1921 (for the then generous fee of 5,000 francs) - are not only masterpieces of transcription but also a reversion to nature: they both derive from the original score for piano and orchestra. Obviously, in the Russian Dance - where , in the ballet, Petrushka, the Ballerina and the Moor are first conjured to dance - certain orchestral parts had to be added to the solo piano part, which makes it more difficult but even more brilliant as piano music. The bitonal fanfares represting Petrushka in the next movement, In Petrushka’s Cell, were conceived at the piano, which explains why they sound so convincing here. In the following dance for the Ballerina and Petrushka, on the other hand, remarkably vivid though it is in the piano version, rather than attempt to transcribe the clarinet cadenza from the ballet Stravinsky incorporated new material in the piano cadenza.

The piano plays a small part in the fourth scene of the ballet, the second Shrove-Tide Fair. In comparison with the first two movements of the piano version, the transcription illustrates very well the difference been piano music and music for piano. As music for piano, this sequence of four dances - for wet nurses, gypsies, coachmen and masqueraders respectively - sounds different in numerous fascinating way from their orchestral counterparts. As Stravinsky said, “The fact that a work has been scored in one way does not mean that its expressive possibilities are exhausted in that form.”

Russian Dance

In Petrushka’s Cell

The Shrove-Tide Fair

Introducing a performance of his Three Movements from Petrushka in 1935, Stravinsky made a distinction between piano music and music for piano. “It is possible,” he said, “for musical ideas to be born in the abstract, before the composer has thought of any particular instrumentation for them.” If the idea is then scored for piano, that is music for piano. On the other hand, there is “music in which the ideas are suggested by a certain instrument and conditioned by its possibilities. If the piano has dictated the idea, this is piano music.”

Even the Petrushka ballet, which was first performed in Paris in 1911, is “piano music” in that sense - or some of it is. After completing The Firebird and seeing it through its first performance in Paris in 1910, Stravinsky settled in France for a while and instead of getting on with his next ballet for Diaghilev (which was to have been The Rite of Spring) he began a piece for piano and orchestra: “In composing the music,” he said, “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 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.”

Stravinsky had already selected the title for the piece - Petrushka being the Russian equivalent of Pierrot, “the immortal and unhappy hero of every fair in all countries” - when Diaghilev called on him in Lausanne to see how The Rite of Spring was progressing. On hearing the first two movement of the new piece, Petrushka’s Cry and Russian Dance, Diaghilev immediately saw the ballet potential in them. Stravinsky agreed with him and the composer and the impresario together devised the setting and the basis of the action that would take place: the Shrovetide Fair in St Petersburg “with its crowds, its booths, the little traditional theatre, the character of the magician, with all his tricks; and the coming to the life of the dolls - Petrushka, his rival, and the dancer - and their love tragedy, which ends with Petrushka’s death.” Petrushka’s Cry would become the second scene of the ballet, In Petrushka’s Cell, and the Russian Dance became the last part of the opening Shrovetide Fair scene.

So the first two of the Three Movements from Petrushka - which was commissioned by Artur Rubinstein in 1921 (for the then generous fee of 5,000 francs) - are not only masterpieces of transcription but also a reversion to nature. Obviously, in the Russian Dance - where , in the ballet, Petrushka, the Ballerina and the Moor are first conjured to dance - certain orchestral parts had to be added to the solo piano part, which makes it more difficult but even more brilliant as piano music. The bitonal fanfares on C and F sharp major, Petrushka’s motif, in the next movement, In Petrushka’s Cell, were conceived at the piano. Which is why they sound so convincing here. In the following dance for the Ballerina and Petrushka, on the other hand, remarkably vivid though it is in the piano version, rather than attempt to transcribe the clarinet cadenza from Stravinsky incorporated new material in the piano cadenza.

The piano plays a small part in the fourth scene of the ballet, the second Shrove-Tide Fair. In comparison with the first two movements of the piano version, the transcription illustrates very well the difference been piano music and music for piano. As music for piano, this sequence of four dances - for wet nurses, gypsies, coachmen and masqueraders respectively - sounds different in numerous fascinating way from their orchestral counterparts. As Stravinsky said, “The fact that a work has been scored in one way does not mean that its expressive possibilities are exhausted in that form.”

Gerald Larner