Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/188

162 accompany a soprano, consists of two flutes (one a little flute), two clarinets (the second a bass clarinet), piano (an instrument which Stravinsky almost invariably includes in his orchestration), two violins, viola, and 'cello. This form of chamber music, of course, is not rare. Chausson's violin concerto, with chamber orchestra, and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire instantly come to mind, but Stravinsky did not stop with chamber music. He applied his new principle to the larger forms. I have not heard these songs with orchestral accompaniment (the piano transcription was made by the composer himself) but I may take the judgment of those who have. I am told that they are of an indescribable beauty, and instinct with a new color, a color particularly adapted to the oriental naivete of the lyrics.

In his newest work, The Village Weddings, which I believe Serge de Diaghilev hopes to produce, his principle has found its ultimate expression, I am told by his friend, Ernest Ansermet, conductor of the Russian Ballet in America and to whom Stravinsky dedicated his three pieces for string quartet. The last note is dry on the score of this work, and it is therefore quite possible to talk about it although no part of it has yet been performed publicly. According to Mr. Ansermet there is required an orchestra of forty-five men, each a virtuoso, no two of whom play the same instrument (to be sure there are two violins but one invariably plays pizzicato, the other invariably bows). There are novelties in the band but all the conventional instruments are there including, you may be sure, a piano and an infinite variety of woodwinds, which always play significant roles in Stravinsky's orchestration. And Mr. Ansermet says that in this work the composer has achieved effects such as have only been dreamed of by composers hitherto I can well believe him.

He has made another innovation, following, in this case, an idea of Diaghilev's. When that impresario determined on a production of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, The Golden Cock, during the summer of 1914 he conceived a performance with two casts, one choregraphic and the other vocal. Thus Mme. Dobrovolska sang the coloratura role of the Queen of Shemakhan while Mme. Karsavina danced the part most brilliantly on her toes; M. Petrov sang the role of King Dodon, which was enacted by Adolf Bolm, etc. In order to accomplish this feat Mr. Diaghilev was obliged to make the singers a part of the decoration. Natalie Gontcharova, who has been called in to assist in the production of The Village Weddings, devised as part of her stage setting two tiers of seats, one on either side of the stage, extending into the flies