Stravinsky - L' Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale) for Trio (1918)

Igor Stravinsky - L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale) for Trio (1918) 0:00 Introduction to the piece 3:05 I. Marche du Soldat 4:53 II. Le violon du Soldat 7:25 III. Petit concert 10:57 IV. Tango- Valse- Rag 17:44 V. Danse du Diable Recorded live in New Haven Lawn Club on November 3, 2021 Artists: Siwoo Kim, violin Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet Min Young Kang, piano Program notes: Another theatrical work, Igor Stravinsky’s 1918 L’histoire du soldat (The Soldier’s Tale) fuses acting, dance and music into one of the great artistic landmarks of the 20th century. Its story of the Faustian bargain rings familiar: a soldier on leave from war trades his violin to the devil in return for untold riches. But the diverse theatrical dimensions of the work and Stravinsky’s extraordinarily eclectic treatment of the music are striking even to modern ears accustomed to the hyperstimulation of today’s digital age — more than a century after its premiere. Listeners versed in Stravinsky’s other works for the stage, such as The Firebird or The Rite of Spring, may find the composer’s folk impulse even more pronounced in L’histoire, unvarnished by the pretense of “high art” and emboldened here by the commingling of popular and vernacular styles like tango and ragtime. Stravinsky distilled the music from the complete theatre work into a concert suite for the same septet of the original staged version, but the present trio version actually predates the seven-instrument suite; in 1919 the composer lifted the violin and clarinet from the original cast and added the piano to fill out the trio arrangement of five of the musical numbers, a nod to the Swiss philanthropist and amateur clarinetist Walter Reinhart, who funded much of the original project. By Graeme Steele Johnson Video produced by Aquarius Music Group. *Don't miss a single note of upcoming concerts. Join on our newsletter at https://www.kalloscms.org/ *For more content, follow us on Instagram and Facebook   / kalloscms     / kalloscms