Stravinsky: Pulcinella, Le Baiser de la fée (Divertimento)

Featuring

Gustavo Gimeno
Derek Welton
Isabel Leonard
Paul Appleby
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Igor Stravinsky

Kelly-Marie Murphy

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Stravinsky considered Pulcinella a pivotal work, calling it his 'discovery of the past' and 'the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible'.

Compositional Technique

For Pulcinella, Stravinsky drew from Italian Baroque music by composers like Pergolesi and Monza, filtering it through his own artistic sensibility to create a new musical language with deceptive simplicity.

Performer Biography

Gustavo Gimeno, the conductor on this album, is the Music Director of both the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and will become Music Director Designate of the Teatro Real in Madrid in 2025/26.

Composition History

Igor Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella was commissioned by Serge Diaghilev, the brilliant inventor and promoter of the Ballets Russes, in the spring of 1919.

Compositional Technique

In The Fairy's Kiss, Stravinsky paid tribute to Tchaikovsky by using an orchestra similar to that of The Sleeping Beauty and drawing material from Tchaikovsky's songs and piano pieces.

Recording & Production

This album marks the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's second collaboration with harmonia mundi, following their critically acclaimed 2024 release of Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie.

Composition History

Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Fairy's Kiss was commissioned by dancer Ida Rubinstein, a rival of Diaghilev, as an homage to Tchaikovsky on the 35th anniversary of his death.