Tapiola Sinfonietta/Suzuki - Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite

Masaaki Suzuki is firmly established as a leading authority on the works of Bach, whilst, in recent years, he has also been appearing in front of eminent orchestras conducting repertoire as diverse as Britten, Faur� and Mahler. For his first recording of twentieth-century repertoire, Suzuki has chosen to collaborate with the acclaimed Tapiola Sinfonietta in an all-Stravinsky programme. The disc begins with the music for Pulcinella - here in the concert suite devised by the composer - which Stravinsky later described as 'the epiphany through which the whole of my later work became possible'. For this adaptation of an early eighteenth-century commedia dell'arte libretto, he based his score on existing music, initially ascribed to Pergolesi although material by other baroque composers is also included. Stravinsky's approach is never that of a faithful transcriber, however: in Pulcinella the material is slanted harmonically, rhythmically and texturally in a manner reminiscent of cubism - and it was indeed Picasso who provided the decor and costumes for the ballet's first performance. The neoclassical (or neobaroque) spirit remained a vital part of Stravinsky's compositional armoury for a long time, and also informs the other two works presented here. The formal design of Concerto in D, composed some 25 years after Pulcinella, pays homage to the baroque concerti grossi of Vivaldi and Bach, while the score for the ballet Apollon musag�te (also known as Apollo) contains references to French music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.