It is unlikely that in the minds of most listeners Stravinsky's name would be associated with music for the piano ; indeed, the catalogue of his works includes only a dozen pieces for piano solo and duo. But a closer look at Stravinsky's compositions will show, perhaps surprisingly, the extent to which that instrument stands in the foreground of his creative efforts. One finds many piano transcriptions, numerous songs for voice and piano, concerted works for piano and orchestra (the Concerto, Capriccio and Movements), prominent piano parts in Petrushka and Les Noces (with an "orchestra" of four pianos and percussion) and lesser parts in Firebird, the Symphony in Three Movements and many other compositions. The composer, too, has spoken of the piano's role in his own creative process : "...it is the center of my life and the fulcrum of all my musical discoveries. Each note that I write on it, and every relationship of notes is taken apart and heard on it again and again." It is, then, almost certain that his music for piano alone — the instrument now divested of the orchestral colors which so often surround and sometimes grow out of it — should reveal qualities that are the quintessence of his musical personality. It is music which covers the entire span of his creative life up to the present, from an early unpublished Sonata (1904) of his student days to a work which the composer is currently writing. The Four Etudes (1908) represents Stravinsky's first published work for piano solo and offers us an unaccustomed and fascinating glimpse of this musical mind not yet at a stage of full maturity. The pieces lie in the 19th-century etude tradition : they use the vocabulary of the Romantic piano and call for the solution of a host of technical problems. The impassioned melodic impulse of the first study stems from Chopin, while its chromatic language evokes the style of Scriabin ; the Lisztian virtuosity of the second presents chromatic elaboration which seems to overwhelm the melodic line; the familiar texture of the third contains a middle-voice melody framed by treble figuration and bass harmonic support ; and the two-bar phrases of the fourth, in regular succession, contain rapid passage work broken only by forte chords. The ragtime dance from l'Histoire du soldat and Ragtime were both written in 1918 ; these and the Piano Rag of the following year represent Stravinsky's first interest in the jazz idiom. He had become familiar with the new style through the study of a selection of sheet music brought by Ernest Ansermet, who had returned from an American tour. Stravinsky writes, "... as I had never actually heard any of the music performed, I borrowed its rhythmic style not as played, but as written. I could imagine jazz sound, however, or so I liked to think. Jazz meant, in any case, a wholly new sound in music, and l'Histoire marks my final break with the Russian orchestral school in which I had been fostered." "It is indicative of the passion I felt at the time for jazz, which burst into my life so suddendly when the war ended..."
Allan Novick (from the original Liner Notes)
Beveridge Webster
Plays
Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
Tracks
Cd. 1
1 Piano Rag 3:13
(1919)
Piano Sonata
(1924)
2 1st Movement 3:02
3 2nd Movement 4:38
4 3rd Movement 2:38
5 Circus Polka 3:39
(1942)
6 Ragtime 4:35
(1918)
Serenade in A major
(1925)
7 Hymne 2:58
8 Romanza 2:42
9 Rondoletto 2:29
10 Cadenza finala 3:38
*
Cd. 2
1 The Five Fingers 7:34
(1920-21)
Four Etudes
(1908)
2 I. Con moto 1:18
3 II. Allegro brillante 2:34
4 III. Andantino 1:32
5 IV. Vivo 1:54
6 Tango 4:08
(1940)
Petrushka
(1911-12)
7 Danse Russe. Allegro giusto 2:37
8 Chez Petrouchka. Stringendo 4:46
9 La Semaine Grasse. Con moto 9:06
*
Beveridge Webster - p
Recorded ca 1968