The Mariinsky Orchestra & Valery Gergiev – Stravinsky: Petrushka, Jeu de cartes (2018) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

The Mariinsky Label presents Valery Gergiev’s first recording of Stravinsky’s iconic Petrushka score, paired with one of the composer’s hidden gems, the witty Jeu de cartes.

Stravinsky’s score to Petrushka is one of his most celebrated works and a product of his famous collaboration with Diaghilev that also produced The Firebird and Rite of Spring. Presented here in the composer’s original 1911 version, it tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets who are brought to life during the 1830 Shrovetide Fair in Saint Petersburg. Its colourful music typifies Stravinsky’s work during the period and is characterised by the famous bitonal ‘Petrushka chord’.

A ballet in ‘three deals’, 1937’s Jeu de cartes stems from Stravinsky’s life-long enthusiasm for cards; poker in particular. A commission by Lincoln Kirstein and his newly formed American Ballet Company, it was composed during Stravinsky’s neoclassical period. The whimsical music focuses on the deceitful Joker who thinks himself unbeatable, thanks to a chameleon-like ability to become any card. During the work the Joker wages battle with other hands, but after two victorious rounds and the appearance of a third, he is vanquished by a Royal Flush of Hearts. Stravinsky regularly read La Fontaine during the composition of Jeu de cartes, choosing this quote to include in the score: ‘We must wage continual war against the wicked. Peace in itself is a fine thing, I agree, but what use can it be with enemies who do not keep their word?’

“This was demonstrated time and again during the concert: in Stravinsky’s lithe dictionary of neoclassical techniques, Jeu de Cartes” (The Guardian)

“Petrushka was given in its original 1911 scoring – as opposed to the 1947 revision. This afforded a rare opportunity to savour Stravinsky’s first thoughts, with its orchestral palette glittering rather more than it does in its more widely performed successor” (Classical Source)

“Stravinsky’s Jeu des cartes achieved a more convincingly balletic lift-off” (The Financial Times)

Tracklist:
1. Petrushka : First Scene: I. The Shrovetide Fair (Introduction) (1911 original version) 01:25
2. Petrushka : First Scene: II. The Crowds (1911 original version) 04:07
3. Petrushka : First Scene: III. The Conjuring Trick (1911 original version) 01:57
4. Petrushka : First Scene: IV. Russian Dance (1911 original version) 02:40
5. Petrushka : Second Scene: I. Petrushka’s Cell (1911 original version) 04:45
6. Petrushka : Third Scene: I. The Moor’s Cell (1911 original version) 03:02
7. Petrushka : Third Scene: II. Dance of the Ballerina (1911 original version) 00:48
8. Petrushka : Third Scene: III. Waltz (The Ballerina and the Moor) (1911 original version) 03:22
9. Petrushka : Fourth Scene: I. The Shrovetide Fair (towards evening) (1911 original version) 01:09
10. Petrushka : Fourth Scene: II. Dance of the Wet-Nurses (1911 original version) 02:17
11. Petrushka : Fourth Scene: III. A Peasant Enters with a Bear (1911 original version) 01:48
12. Petrushka : Fourth Scene: IV. The Gypsy Girls Dance (1911 original version) 00:56
13. Petrushka : Fourth Scene: V. Dance of the Coachmen and Grooms (1911 original version) 01:59
14. Petrushka : Fourth Scene: VI. The Mummers (1911 original version) 02:16
15. Petrushka : Fourth Scene: VII. Petrushka’s Death (1911 original version) 02:55
16. Jeu de cartes : I. First Deal 05:41
17. Jeu de cartes : II. Second Deal 09:16
18. Jeu de cartes : III. Third Deal 07:20