Dear audience:

Next Saturday, May 20, will be, as you know, the last concert of Iberian Sinfonietta this season, not of the year, since we will return in September, but we will give way to the summer season. The orchestra reaches this closing with strength and vigor in relations with institutions, in attendance and audience loyalty, in quality of sound and programs; The truth is, we are satisfied with this season. To celebrate, a round program, two works by two titans of music: Mozart and Stravinsky .

Today we will focus on the work that will close the concert, the Pulcinella ballet suite by Igor Stravinsky , a composer born in Russia, later nationalized French and then American. A unique character in the history of music.

Stravinsky wrote the music for the ballet Pulcinella based on a story from the 18th century. They were the early years of the 19th century and Russian ballets were touring throughout Europe, they were in fashion. Behind all this, some characters, a businessman, Serguei Diaguilez, a librettist and dancer, Massine and a design of costumes and sets by our Pablo Picasso. Excellence in all aspects. The ballet Pulcinella premiered in 1920. Two years later, the version to be performed by Iberian Sinfonietta was premiered, the suite in which no solo singers appear, the number of passages is reduced and the work is generally retouched.

Stranvinsky was the composer most related to dance music, hence the proposal of the businessman Diaguilev, but he was a very complex person when it came to accepting a commission, he had to be very motivating. Diaghilev made him a proposal in that sense, it was based on Italian music, by Pergolesi and other Italian baroque artists who had set Pulcinella's theme to music. The proposal, in the middle of Europe in the interwar period, came to him while he was living in Switzerland, which had remained neutral in World War I. Recently, another work had triumphed in Europe, with Picasso, Massine but with music by Falla: The Three-cornered Hat; Now, the businessman wanted Stravinsky 's music. The work meant that the composer investigated and immersed himself in all previous music, which is why a fundamental stage in his style was born, which would influence all composers: Neoclassicism was born. To be inspired again and based on historical authors, Pergolesi in this case, Bach, Mozart...

Stravinsky , after the premiere of the ballet, understood that there were passages by the singers that could be performed by the instruments of the orchestra without problem, and he did so through the eight movements that make up this suite. Another of the great achievements of this piece is that it further united Pablo Picasso with Stranvinsky . Both worked together in Paris and just as this work makes the composer and painter re-evaluate the music of the past, the same thing will happen with his harlequins from the blue and pink periods. It is also a work highly valued by the orchestra, since it is populated with a multitude of small solos of many different instruments and makes everyone feel like soloists and with great responsibility throughout it.

Not to miss it.

Jorge Rodríguez Morata
Pedagogical content coordinator