Igor Stravinsky
Premiere
L’Histoire du soldat
The Fable of the Fox, the Cock, the Tomcat and the Ram
Soloists:
Dmitry Voropaev, Andrei Ilyushnikov,
Andrei Serov, Pavel Shmulevich
Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra
L'Histoire du soldat
Artistes of the Demmeni Marionette Theatre:
Musical Director: Valery Gergiev
Premiere of this production: 7 February 2010
The Fable of the Fox... with the subheading “a merry performance with singing and dancing” is a one-act amusement in “cheap print” Russian style in which Stravinsky once again turns to the traditions of jesters’ “laughing” theatre. The subject of Russian tales from Afanasiev’s folkloric collection, where the instructive story of human weaknesses takes on the form of an allegorical menagerie of beasts, gave the composer a mass of ways to instrument his extremely witty musical discoveries, as a result of which was the creation of one of the best comic masterpieces of the 20th century. The story of a fleeing soldier who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for a miraculous violin and a magic book is borrowed from the same collection.
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Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments |