Trois mouvements de Petrouchka

History[edit]

Sergei Diaghilev, who had commissioned The Firebird from Stravinsky for his new ballet company, the Ballets Russes, had expected Stravinsky would follow the ballet with another dance work, The Rite of Spring. The idea for such a work had occurred to Stravinsky while still working on The Firebird, but Stravinsky felt the need to write something unrelated to the theater and conceived an orchestral work in which the piano would have a prominent part: Stravinsky himself used the word Konzertstück for the composition.^[1]


Stravinsky relates that he had in mind a distinct picture of a puppet who tried the patience of the orchestra with "diabolical cascades of arpeggios." In turn, the orchestra retaliates with trumpet blasts and after reaching a climax, the conflict ends with the collapse of the puppet. Stravinsky recalled that after completing the piece, he searched vainly for an appropriate name for his puppet until he remembered Petrushka, a popular hero of country fairs everywhere.^[1]


In the fall of 1910, Diaghilev came to visit Stravinsky, who at that time was living in Lausanne, Switzerland, expecting to hear the beginning of The Rite of Spring, but instead was greeted with Petrushka. Diaghilev immediately recognized the possibilities of developing this orchestral work into a full length stage work. Thus, the concert piece became the second part of the ballet Petrushka. The full score was completed on 11 May 1911, and on the following 13 June Petrushka was performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, under the baton of Pierre Monteux.^[1]


Three Movements from Petrushka for the solo piano were composed ten years later for his friend, pianist Arthur Rubinstein, and are dedicated to him. Stravinsky is very explicit in stating that the movements are not transcriptions. He was not trying to reproduce the sound of the orchestra, but instead wished to compose a score which would be essentially pianistic even though its musical material was drawn directly from the ballet. Stravinsky also wanted to create a work which would encourage pianists to play his music, but it should be one in which they could display their technique, an objective he amply achieved.^[1]