Stravinsky, Igor: Pulcinella Suite

arranged for piano trio by Richard Birchall

Igor Stravinsky himself helped to arrange music from his ballet Pulcinella for both violin/piano and cello/piano duos, giving each the title Suite italienne, so it seemed quite logical, albeit almost a century later, to bring these forces together and create a new Pulcinella Suite for piano trio. It is striking that no piano trio music by Stravinsky has existed up to this point. Given the extent to which Stravinsky takes material directly from earlier Italian music (Gallo, Pergolesi and others) it provided an interesting challenge to the arranger: to reduce a full orchestral score to three instruments while retaining the essential Stravinsky elements, preserving his respect for the Italian originals while always being true to his later miraculous creativity.