Igor Stravinsky: The Soldier's Tale (L'Histoire du Soldat), Suite – Musicians from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali (HD 4K)

The theme could not be more relevant when Stravinsky wrote the music for the performance The Soldier's Tale in 1917-1918 – the world was in flaming war.

Like many artists in Europe, Stravinsky had fled to neutral Switzerland, where he met the author Charles F. Ramuz. His story of the soldier who sold his violin to the devil for glory and money was also a reflection of the artists' terms. Freedom or success? Stravinsky was perhaps proof that both were possible. The music, influenced by jazz and with elements such as ragtime and tango, does very well on its own. This is shown by Santtu-Matias Rouvali and musicians from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in the suite of vivid movements Stravinsky compiled from the original music.

Source: gso.se/en/

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Stravinsky had first met the Swiss writer, Charles F. Ramuz in 1915 and worked with him on the French version of Renard and Les Noces so it was not surprising when he again collaborated with him on the L'Histoire du Soldat a few years later. The war had understandably affected the financial situation and both composer and librettist wanted to write something which could be produced simply and economically. L'Histoire du Soldat is scored for dancer, three speaking parts and seven instruments and has proved to be successful on an almost unbelievable international scale since its first performance in Lausanne in September 1918 (described in the programme as "to be read, played and danced"). The story tells of the Soldier who has a magic violin which he trades with the Devil who promises to fulfil his every wish. One of his many encounters involves his curing the lovely daughter of a King but throughout the piece the Devil proves a tricky protagonist. The Concert Suite was first performed in London's Wigmore Hall in July 1920.

Source: Sheila MacCrindle (wisemusicclassical.com)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

♪ The Soldier's Tale (L'Histoire du Soldat), Suite  (1920)

i. The Soldier’s March

ii. Airs by a Stream

iii. Pastorale

iv. Royal March

v. The Little Concert

vi. Three Dances: Tango – Waltz – Ragtime

vii. Dance of the Devil

viii. Grand Choral

ix. Triumphal March of the Devil

Terje Skomedal, violin

Jenny Ryderberg, contrabass

Ragnar Arnberg, clarinet

Constantin Gerstein, bassoon

Per Ivarsson, trumpet

Endre Vetås, trombone

Martin Ödlund, percussion

Conductor: Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Gothenburg Concert Hall, 2021

(HD 4K / 2160p)

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Santtu-Matias Rouvali – All the posts

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra – All the posts

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Igor Stravinsky: Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka – Nour Ayadi (HD 1080p)

Moroccan pianist Nour Ayadi performs Igor Stravinsky's Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka. Recorded at Théâtre de l'Alliance Française, Paris, on June 15, 2019.

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It was mostly at the urging of then 34 year old pianist Arthur Rubinstein (the "urging" was really an offer of 5000 francs – serious money for a composer reeling from the effects of the First World War) that, in 1921, Igor Stravinsky set about converting three portions of his already famous ballet Petrushka into a three-movement vehicle for solo piano. And yet, despite the lavish attention to orchestral detail that fills every measure of the ballet, it is not at all difficult to imagine the work in pianistic terms: Stravinsky's first sketches of Petrushka (from the summer of 1910) took the form of a concerto for piano and orchestra, and it was only at the urging of impresario Diaghilev that he rerouted his energies into a theatrical vein and produced the work that now is so well-known. Strangely enough, Rubinstein never recorded these Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka, though accounts of his many live performances of the piece testify to his close sympathy with the music.

The three numbers that Stravinsky selected to arrange are, in the order they appear, the "Russian Dance" from the end of the first tableau, "Petrushka's Cell" from the second tableau, and, incorporating almost all of the fourth tableau (including the ending published in the 1947 revision of the ballet), "The Shrove-tide Fair". Everywhere the pianism is brilliantly choreographed (the work is certainly tremendously difficult to bring off, but always packs a wallop when done well), and the transcription to the keyboard is carried out with a finesse not usually encountered in a composer's translation of his own music (usually a certain amount of distance, psychologically speaking, is helpful in successfully carrying out such a translation; hence Franz Liszt's many spectacular piano transcriptions of music utterly foreign to his own compositional style): here is no mere "piano reduction", but rather a full-blown, independent concert work in which the electric, vaguely symmetrical sixteenth-note figurations and sharp orchestral articulations of the "Russian Dance" are reforged into a demanding test of finger dexterity (the "Russian Dance", in its original orchestral form, is actually reinforced by a dramatic, nonstop use of the piano) and, later on, the famous oscillating contrary thirds of strings and woodwinds that open "The Shrove-tide Fair" (clearly originally conceived of at the piano) are translated into a shimmering and wholly idiomatic keyboard figuration that is almost – but not quite – the equal of its orchestral counterpart.

Source: Blair Johnston (allmusic.com)



Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

♪ Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka (1921)

i. Danse russe (Russian Dance)
ii. Chez Pétrouchka (Petrushka's Room)
iii. La semaine grasse (The Shrovetide Fair)

Nour Ayadi, piano

Théâtre de l'Alliance Française, Paris, June 15, 2019

(HD 1080p)

Moroccan pianist Nour Ayadi (b. 1999) has won the 2019 Cortot Prize in Paris at the end of the Concours du Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste at the Alfred Cortot School of Music. Ayadi is the first female Cortot Prize winner since the creation of this competition.

Nour began her piano studies at the age of 6 in Casablanca with Nicole Salmon. At the age of 16, she moved to Paris to pursue her musical studies at the Ecole normale de Musique and the Conservatoire national de Musique de Paris.

She has won several prizes in international competitions. She won First Prize at the Virtuoses du coeur Competition in Paris in 2019, First Prize at the Baku International Classical Music Competition, Second Prize at the Alion Piano Competition in Estonia andthe First Prize at the Moroccan National Music Competition, among others.

Source: pizzicato.lu

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Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka – Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali (HD 1080p)

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Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring – Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali (HD 1080p)

This orchestral explosion with its mysterious passages never ceases to fascinate, here under the leadership of the chief conductor of Gothenburg Symphony, Santtu-Matias Rouvali.

Igor Stravinsky wrote, prophetically, in his memoirs: "I wish that somebody in Leningrad could look for the music, for I am curious of how I composed just before The Firebird".

In the 1910s, Stravinsky was hugely creative in his collaboration with the Russian Ballet in Paris. The Firebird was followed by Petrushka, and then came masterpiece The Rite of Spring – perhaps the most important and famous orchestral piece of the 20th century. Inspired by the violence of Russian spring, he composed music that was daring and innovative in equal measure – nothing like it had ever been heard before.

Recorded at Gothenburg Concert Hall, on March 29, 2019.



Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

♪ The Rite of Spring (1910-1913)

Part I. L'Adoration de la Terre (Adoration of the Earth)

i. Introduction
ii. Les Augures printaniers (Augurs of Spring)
iii. Jeu du rapt (Ritual of Abduction)
iv. Rondes printanières (Spring Rounds)
v. Jeux des cités rivales (Ritual of the Rival Tribes)
vi. Cortège du sage: Le Sage (Procession of the Sage: The Sage)
vii. Embrasse de la terre (Kiss of the Earth)
viii. Danse de la terre (Dance of the Earth)


Part II. Le Sacrifice (The Sacrifice)

ix. Introduction
x. Cercles mystérieux des adolescentes (Mystic Circles of the Young Girls)
xi. Glorification de l'élue (Glorification of the Chosen One)
xii. Evocation des ancêtres (Evocation of the Ancestors)
xiii. Action rituelle des ancêtres (Ritual Action of the Ancestors)
xiv. Danse sacrale (L'Élue) (Sacrificial Dance)


Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Santtu-Matias Rouvali

Gothenburg Concert Hall, March 29, 2019

(HD 1080p)

The Rite of Spring, original French "Le Sacre du printemps: tableaux de la Russie païenne en deux partie", English in full "The Rite of Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia in Two Parts", ballet by Russian modernist composer Igor Stravinsky that premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on May 29, 1913. It is considered one of the first examples of Modernism in music and is noted for its brutality, its barbaric rhythms, and its dissonance. Its opening performance provided one of the most scandalous premieres in history, with pro and con members of the audience arguing so volubly that the dancers were unable to take their cues from the orchestra. The Rite of Spring still strikes many contemporary listeners as a startlingly modern work.

The piece was commissioned by the noted impresario of the Ballets Russes, Serge Diaghilev, who earlier had produced the young composer's "The Firebird" (1910) and "Petrushka" (1911). Stravinsky developed the story of "The Rite of Spring", originally to be called "The Great Sacrifice", with the aid of artist and mystic Nicholas Roerich, whose name appears with the composer's on the title page of the earliest publications of the score. The production was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, and its sets and costumes were designed by Roerich.

Like Stravinsky's earlier works for the Ballet Russes, "The Rite of Spring" was inspired by Russian culture, but, unlike them, it challenged the audience with its chaotic percussive momentum.

In the mid-20th century, Stravinsky revised the orchestration for concert performance, and that version of the score remains the version that is most commonly performed. In 1987, however, the ballet as it was first conceived and performed, with original set and costumes and Nijinsky's choreography (which had been seen for only seven performances before it was superseded by new choreography from Léonide Massine), was painstakingly reconstructed and re-created by the Joffrey Ballet. The centenary of the ballet's premiere prompted other ballet companies, notably the Mariinsky in St Petersburg, to also revive the work in its original form.

Source: Betsy Schwarm (britannica.com)

Hailed by The Guardian as ​"the latest sit-up-and-listen talent to emerge from the great Finnish conducting tradition", the 2018-2019 season will see Santtu-Matias Rouvali (b. 1985) continuing his positions as Chief Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, alongside his longstanding Chief Conductor-ship with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra close to his home in Finland.

Rouvali has regular relationships with several orchestras across Europe, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. As well as making his debut with the Münchner Philharmoniker this season, he also returns to North America for concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Following a very successful Nordic tour with Hélène Grimaud last season, the Gothenburg Symphony is back on the road in February 2019 for a tour hitting major centres in Germany and Austria with pianist Alice Sara Ott, and percussionist Martin Grubinger who premieres a new percussion concert by Daníel Bjarnason. Rouvali looks forward to other ambitious touring projects with his orchestras in the future, including appearances in North America and Japan.

In addition to the extensive tour, Rouvali's season in Gothenburg opens with Strauss' Alpine Symphony accompanied by Víkingur Ólafsson Mozart Piano Concerto No.24, and he looks forward to collaborations with Janine Jansen, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Baiba Skride throughout the rest of the season.

As another cornerstone to his tenure in Gothenburg, he is adding his mark to the Orchestra's impressive recording legacy. In partnership with Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Baiba Skride, a recording featuring concertos from Bernstein, Korngold and Rozsa is released in autumn 2018. This continues his great collaboration with Baiba Skride following their hugely successful recording of Nielsen and Sibelius' violin concertos with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in summer 2015.

Rouvali has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra since 2013. Highlights of the tenure so far include a Sibelius symphony cycle in autumn 2015, and the Orchestra's first tour to Japan in spring 2017 where they were accompanied by an exhibition of original Moomin drawings by Tove Jansson to mark the opening of the new museum at the Tampere Hall. He opens the 2018-2019 season with a Beethoven programme with pianist Javier Perianes.

Alongside an extremely busy symphonic conducting career, as Chief Conductor in Tampere he has conducted Verdi's La forza del destino and most recently world premiere of Olli Kortekangas's My Brother's Keeper (Veljeni vartija) with Tampere Opera in spring 2018.

Source: harrisonparrott.com

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Santtu-Matias Rouvali – All the posts

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra – All the posts

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