Stravinsky - Pulcinella Suite: Sinfonia, Gavotta and Vivo Flashcards
What is the context of Pulcinella Suite: Sinfonia, Gavotta and Vivo?
Stravinsky wrote the ballet Pulcinella just after the end of the First World War. His previous compositions required a massive symphony orchestra, particularly The Rite of Spring. The war put a stop to these large-scale performances and Stravinsky moved to the safety of Switzerland. At the end of the war, a return to Paris ballet productions became possible, though circumstances were such that the lavish earlier type of production with massive instrumental demands was no longer appropriate. The director of the Ballets Russes dance company, Serge Diaghilev, asked the composer to make arrangements of some pieces from the middle of the eighteenth-century by the Italian composer Pergolesi. He had discovered them in a Naples library. The original pieces were written for various solo instruments and small ensembles. It was later discovered that many of the pieces were not in fact by Pergolesi after all. Only the ‘Vivo’ in this selection is by him – from the last movement of a cello sonata.
