Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 11 (1930-08)

The Ballets of Igor Strawinski By WILLIAM HENRY SELTSAM I. Petrouchka William Seltsam (Caricature by Ricardo M. Aleman) P ERMIT me to commence my article with a dogmatic statement: Musically speaking, Petrouchka is the greatest ballet that has ever been composed. Although Strawinski has drawn considerably from folk material, there is much here that is entirely original. In no com- position of this great Russian is brilliant or- chestration more evident nor does Strawinski elsewhere succeed so well in his descriptive pow- ers. As one critic has said: “You can actually smell the sausages frying. ” Petrouchka was the first Strawinski ballet to be recorded in full. That was the old H.M.V. set (four records), later re-issued in this country by Victor, conducted by Eugene Goossens. While the acoustical recording was exceedingly weak in places, even by old standards, this set exerted its influence in the history of recorded music. Now we have a completely recorded electrical version by the dynamic Coates and doubtless many of our readers will have experienced the thrill of this composition through the medium of faithful re- cording. Of the cut versions, Koussevitsky’s for Victor easily leads, although the Edison-Bell (two records) was very fine considering the early elec- trical recording. Last, but by no means least (and I do not want my readers to get the idea that my order of naming is graded according to quality) we have the authentic Strawinski excerpts from Columbia which are, of course, authentic docu- ments of great historical importance. Again, Petrouchka was Strawinski’s debut as a recording conductor and one can discover his early weak- nesses in this capacity. These have since showed fine signs of correction and Strawinski shows every prospect of becoming one of our finest re- cording conductors. Finally there are a number of recordings which fall into a third classification. I am refering to those single-sided recordings of the Russian Dance from this ballet (first scene), played by Claudio Arrau (Polydor) and other European pianists. Petrouchka is the Russian analogue to Pagliacci and an acrid, bitter satire on life it is. Petrouchka is a puppet endowed with human emotions, which gives us a character not only inter- esting psychologically but also difficult to portray, emotionally, in music. The slightest exag- geration on the part of Strawinski in composing the music of this ballet would have plunged the entire score into mediocrity. The result was far from mediocre: we have a score that is so true to the story as to be uncanny in its realism. The story of Petrouchka (that is, of the puppets themselves) was worked out by Strawinski in co-operation with Alexandre Benois; it is not de- rived from folk-lore as was much of the music. The first presentation of the ballet was at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, June 13, 1911 un- der the direction of Serge de Diaghileff. The choreography was by Michel Fokine and the prin- cipal roles of Petrouchka, the Ballerina, the Moor, and the Magician were taken respectively by Waslaw Nijinsky, Tamar Karsavina, OrlofF, and the celebrated Italian ballet master Enrico Cec- cheti. Pierre Monteux conducted the orchestra. Unlike the first presentation of Le Sacre, Pet- rouchka was a triumph. Strawinski subtitles his masterpiece “Scenes Burlesques”, the score being divided into four scenes. The first is the Admiralty Square of old Petrograd during “butter week”, about the year 1830. The scene represents the usual carnival with side shows, etc. In the center of the stage is a large size puppet show, the curtain of which is closed. An added dimension is given the scene by the presence of two audiences and a theater with- in a theater. On the first record side (Coates’ set is used for reference because of its completeness) we have the hurly-burly and bustle of the carnival throngs. To portray this confusion in his score 363