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

Featuring

Masaaki Suzuki
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Igor Stravinsky

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Compositional Technique

Stravinsky's Pulcinella is based on music by the 18th-century Italian composer Pergolesi, though research shows it also includes material from other Baroque composers.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Igor Stravinsky, the composer, declared his ballet Pulcinella to be "my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my later work became possible."

Composition History

Pablo Picasso, the famous Spanish painter, provided the decor and costumes for the first performance of Stravinsky's Pulcinella in Paris in May 1920.

Composition History

The scenario for Stravinsky's Pulcinella ballet, a Casanova-like tale, was devised by Sergei Diaghilev, a Russian art critic and ballet impresario, and choreographer Leonid Massine.

Recording & Production

This recording was made in April 2015 at the Tapiola Concert Hall in Finland by Jens Braun and Hans Kipfer of Take 5 Music Production.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Stravinsky claimed that if a truly tragic note exists in his music, it is found in Apollo, referring to his ballet Apollon musagète.

Performer Biography

Masaaki Suzuki, the conductor, is a leading authority on the works of J.S. Bach, having founded Bach Collegium Japan in 1990 and recorded all of Bach's major choral works and cantatas.