Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971)
Petrushka, A Burlesque in 4 Scenes
1. The Shrove-tide Fair
2. Petrushka's Cell
3. The Moor's Cell
4. The Shrovetide Fair

Petrushka is the second of the three great ballet scores Stravinsky wrote for Serge Diaghilev's Russian Ballet company, which established Stravinsky as a great innovator in modern music, and set the direction for much of 20th century music.

After the success of Firebird in 1910, Diaghilev was keen for another new ballet for the next season, and Stravinsky already had an idea for a ballet based on a pagan Spring sacrifice. So a few months later Diaghilev was surprised to find Stravinsky at work not on the pagan sacrifice ballet, but a sort of piano concerto. Stravinsky had realised the ballet would be a big work, and wanted to "refresh himself first. But while working on the piano concerto, he had the idea of the piano as a sort of puppet brought to life, exasperating the orchestra with its diabolical cascade of trills, and answered by menacing trumpet blasts from the orchestra - and the idea for a quite different ballet was born. Eventually he chose the name Petrushka, the Russian equivalent of Pierrot, Pulcinella, or Punch. It was finished in May 1911, and first performed a month later in Paris on 13th June, 1911. It was another stunning success.

The story is simple and tragic. Scene 1 : We are at the St.Petersburg Shrovetide fair, where all is bustle and excitement. A showman has in his booth three life-size puppets - a ballerina, a blackamoor, and Petrushka - which he magically brings to life and they dance for the crowd. Scene 2: These puppets are not just dolls, they have feelings and emotions too, especially Petrushka, who bitterly resents the cruel showman, and he seeks comfort in love for the ballerina. But the pretty girl will have none of his clumsy loving. Scene 3: The Moor is very different, all machismo and swagger, and the ballerina falls for his crude seduction. Petrushka, mad with jealousy, breaks in on them but is thrown out by the Moor. Scene 4: Back in the fair the evening wears on, with increasingly riotous dancing. Suddenly cries come from the Showman's booth, and Petrushka runs out, chased by the Moor with a big sabre, who savagely strikes him down. The miserable Petrushka dies, surrounded by the horrified crowd. The Showman comes out, and picks up the doll with its wooden head and body filled with sawdust - he was not real! Then as the uneasy crowd disperses, the figure of Petrushka appears on the roof of the booth, mocking the terrified Showman, who drops the doll and flies into the night.

The music is dominated by the tone and style of the piano, brittle and percussive, and indeed the piano has a part of almost concerto-like difficulty. The other dominant factor is the characterisations of the three puppets, especially the half-puppet / half-human Petrushka himself, whose arpeggio theme is played on two instruments together in conflicting keys (first clarinets, often trumpets, and often the two hands of the pianist). It is Petrushka's tragedy that these two conflicting aspects of him remain unreconciled, even after his death. And at the end we are left in doubt - was that Petrushka's ghost on the roof, or the real Petrushka freed from enslavement inside a doll? Rather than being puppets magically endowed with a simulated life, perhaps they were real human souls somehow trapped in a doll's body by the Showman? Either could explain what we have seen. You choose.

A few points of interest to note in the music. We are playing tonight the version Stravinsky made in 1947, which reduces the orchestra required from very large to a more normal size, and makes the texture a lot clearer. Each scene is separated by a flourish on the drums, and the first such flourish is within the first scene, to introduce the Showman. The big flute solo is when he brings the dolls slowly to life, like an Indian snake charmer. Notice the tiny chirrups on the piccolo just before the Russian Dance of the dolls - these chirrups reappear at the end, when Petrushka dies. The second scene in Petrushka's cell is dominated by the piano and Petrushka's theme. The two loud sections are clearly poor Petrushka banging his head against the wall in a frenzy of frustration. The third scene, in the Moor's cell, gives us clear musical pictures of the Moor (suave and sexy, on clarinets, cor anglais and gentle percussion sounds) and the ballerina (shallow and brainless but very pretty, on flute, trumpet and harp). Both tunes combine when they dance together. The final scene, back in the fair, presents a sequence of bustling and stamping dances of great character, interrupted by a dancing bear (very high clarinet and very low tuba). The dances get very wild until the interruption by very high trumpets indicates Petrushka's flight from the Moor. His death is truly pathetic - a dropped tambourine and sad chirrups on the piccolo. After his final terrifying appearance (trumpets again) the quiet plucked string notes give no comfort - and no answers.