Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 12/28/2004, uploaded on 01/25/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Suite Italienne           Igor Stravinsky

Stravinsky's Suite Italienne for violin and piano is based on music from the ballet Pulcinella composed in 1920.  Pulcinella was one of Stravinsky's favorite scores. Its vibrant simplicity and daring naïveté marked an important breakthrough from the lush Russian ballet scores, presenting a fresh new style that we now know as neo-classical. The work, inspired by melodies of the baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi as much by an extended tour of the Mediterranean, follows the dance suite format of multiple lighthearted movements. The piece is sunny and full of contrasts, pitting a serenade against a tarantella, a gavotte against a scherzino and a minuet against a daring finale. The tuneful pre-classical melodies sparkle with a brilliant piano accompaniment that brings elements of jazz rhythm and orchestral color that invest the music with a cheerfully modern perspective.    Andrew Smith

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.