Classical Music | Music for Duo

Recorded on 04/03/2007, uploaded on 01/27/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Scene four from Pertrouchka - The Shrovetide Fair            Igor Stravinsky

Petrouchka, a human-like puppet, is the tragic hero of Igor Stravinsky's masterpiece.  Inspired by the Shrovetide Fair of 19th Century St. Petersburg, Petrouchka was originally written and performed in Paris in 1911 by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.  Stravinsky's brilliant orchestration is angular, repetitious, daemonic, colorful and unsentimental, displaying both "human" and "mechanical" qualities. The piano four-hand version was written by the composer.

Scene four - The Shrovetide Fair (Evening) - As evening sets in, the festivities are raucous and unruly.  A sequence of dancers and performers appear; wet nurses dance with coachmen and grooms, a bear appears with his master, gypsies and masqueraders bring the mood to a fever pitch.    Michael Cansfield

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.