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Technical Notice
| Classical Composer: | Stravinsky, Igor |
|---|---|
| Work: | Divertimento (arr. S. Dushkin for violin and piano) |
| Year Composed: | 1934 |
| Instrumentation: | vn, pf |
| Publisher: | Boosey & Hawkes |
| Duration: | 00:22:00 |
| Period: | 20th Century |
| Work Category: | Chamber Music |
Work Information
Available Recording(s)
The other substantial arrangement made with Dushkin in mind was a Divertimento extracted in 1934 from the ballet after Tchaikovsky Le baiser de la fée (The Fairy's Kiss). Stravinsky also transcribed this for orchestra, and the version for violin and piano is all but identical in its content, making several short omissions in the earlier part of the ballet then leaving out the whole of the final scene which the composer probably felt was simply too pictorial to be viable in abstract terms (and whose climactic statement of the song None but the Lonely Heart is the one instance where Stravinsky resorts to a Tchaikovsky 'evergreen' as opposed to an unfamiliar piece).
Once again the suite starts at the beginning of the original work, its Sinfonia being a truncated equivalent of the ballet's Prologue in which the narrative is set in motion. A plaintive initial theme at length gives way to one of robust rhythmic cast, the initial theme re-entering briefly after a rhetorical pause followed by a toccata-like dash of mounting tension. This is curtailed at its height for the Danses suisses, which, in the ballet, takes place at a village fête and is accordingly music whose infectious gait holds well through several contrasting ideas. The Scherzo finds the synthesis between Tchaikovskian inspiration and Stravinskian reinvention at its most persuasive, as well as translating effortlessly to the chamber medium. The final three pieces constitute the pas de deux, thus an Adagio whose emotional fervour is the greater for its brief duration, followed by a nimble Variation then a Coda whose headlong energy and resolute close gives but little indication of where the ballet is headed.
Writer: Richard Whitehouse
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