Suite from Pulcinella
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

THE STORY

    Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella is often regarded as the first great Neoclassical masterpiece—although it was actually pre-dated by Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony. In any case, it was the beginning of Stravinsky’s own Neoclassical era. “It was a backward look, of course—the first of many love affairs in that direction” he wrote later. “But it was a look in the mirror, too.”
    The idea for the one-act comedic ballet came from Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who dug up an 18th century Italian libretto about Pulcinella, a familiar character from Italian theatre. In this tale, Pulcinella is a ladies’ man who flirts with all the girls, making their boyfriends jealous—not to mention his own girlfriend, Pimpinella. The boyfriends plot to kill Pulcinella and think they have succeeded, but Pulcinella has managed to outsmart them—and when he appears to “return from the dead,” he finds himself back in the good graces of Pimpinella, whom he then marries.
    Diaghilev provided Stravinsky with music from the early 18th century to adapt to a more modern style and pair with the story. At the time, it was thought that the source music was by Giovanni Pergolesi, but it was discovered later that much of it was actually by lesser-known Italian composers.
    With costumes and sets designed by Pablo Picasso, Pulcinella premiered in Paris in 1920. The reviews were largely positive, but the negative comments suggested that Stravinsky had vandalized Pergolesi’s music—much as Prokofiev had imagined his critics would be shocked that he had “vandalized” Mozart.
    Stravinsky was very fond of Pulcinella and two years later created an orchestral suite including about half of the music from the original ballet.

LISTEN FOR

• The harmonic twists and syncopated jazz-like rhythms that bring the original 18th-century music into the 20th century
• A sense of playfulness, with musical humor and sometimes mock-romanticism 
• Inventive orchestration, juxtaposing different instrumental timbres in unexpected ways
• Singing instrumental solos, which were originally vocal solos in the full ballet

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, trumpet, trombone, strings