Igor Stravinsky: Suite d'après des thèmes, fragments et morceaux de Giambatista Pergolesi (1925)
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Orion Weiss, piano
From a concert on November 2 2021 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (With many thanks to Schubert Club)
Stravinsky created his transcription of the orchestral Suite Italienne (which is taken from his ballet Pulcinella) in 1925, for the violinist Paul Kochanski.
It is obnoxiously difficult, making a point of creating as much awkwardness for the violinist and pianist as possible. Therefore it's not a surprise that Samuel Dushkin a few years later made an easier transcription, more straight-forwardly called "Suite Italienne". The Dushkin version is the one most often played by violinists today. I love Stravinsky's own original arrangement, which is closer to the orchestral suite, and more quirky and witty. While some parts of the piece are the same, other parts in this version feature many additional double stops, octaves, left hand pizzicati, ornaments and funny dissonances. The piano in this version is an equal partner, and the piano part is more difficult as well, featuring more exchanges of ideas with the violin. (the Scherzino in the Dushkin version was not part of the orchestral Suite Italienne, so it isn't in this version either). I myself find that in particular the second variation of the Gavotta is so much more beautiful in this version.
Stravinsky once said "lesser artists borrow, great artists steal" - and he certainly lived by that maxim! Suite Italienne is based on themes, fragments and pieces by the baroque composer Giambatista Pergolesi, which are then thoroughly "stravinskyfied".
Stravinsky's aim in this music might have been to recreate the sound of a baroque music band, perhaps a semi-professional one, of the sort that would have made music on the streets, not in court. Rather than an idealized, elegant neobaroque style, Stravinsky wanted to get across the rambunctious joy of that kind of street music, with all its rough edges and wrong notes and other musical accidents (which he composes into the music)!
