Igor Stravinsky – Pulcinella Suite

Commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev and premiered in 1920 as a ballet for the Ballets Russes, Pulcinella marked a decisive stylistic turning point in Igor Stravinsky’s career. Working with material attributed at the time to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (though now known to include works by several lesser-known 18th-century composers, including possibly Domenico Gallo, Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, and Carlo Ignazio Monza, and possibly even a 19th- and 20th-century composer Alessandro Parisotti), Stravinsky transformed what might have been a straightforward pastiche into something unmistakably modern. The result is rhythmically and harmonically subversive in a sharp contrast to the lush textures and folkloric energy of his earlier Russian ballets.