Stravinsky: Petrushka, Jeu de cartes The Mariinsky Orchestra & Valery Gergiev

• Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971): Petrushka, First Scene:
• 1 I. The Shrovetide Fair (Introduction) (1911 original version) 01:25
• 2 II. The Crowds (1911 original version) 04:07
• 3 III. The Conjuring Trick (1911 original version) 01:57
• 4 IV. Russian Dance (1911 original version) 02:40
• Petrushka, Second Scene:
• 5 I. Petrushka's Cell (1911 original version) 04:45
• Petrushka, Third Scene:
• 6 I. The Moor's Cell (1911 original version) 03:02
• 7 II. Dance of the Ballerina (1911 original version) 00:48
• 8 III. Waltz (The Ballerina and the Moor) (1911 original version) 03:22
• Petrushka, Fourth Scene:
• 9 I. The Shrovetide Fair (towards evening) (1911 original version) 01:09
• 10 II. Dance of the Wet-Nurses (1911 original version) 02:17
• 11 III. A Peasant Enters with a Bear (1911 original version) 01:48
• 12 IV. The Gypsy Girls Dance (1911 original version) 00:56
• 13 V. Dance of the Coachmen and Grooms (1911 original version) 01:59
• 14 VI. The Mummers (1911 original version) 02:16
• 15 VII. Petrushka's Death (1911 original version) 02:55
• Jeu de cartes:
• 16 I. First Deal 05:41
• 17 II. Second Deal 09:16
• 18 III. Third Deal 07:20
• Total Runtime 57:43

Info for Stravinsky: Petrushka, Jeu de cartes

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)

Mariinsky Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, conductor

The Mariinsky Orchestra
enjoys a long and distinguished history as one of the oldest musical institutions in Russia. Founded in (1753) during the reign of Peter the Great and housed in St. Petersburg's famed Mariinsky Theatre (1860), the Orchestra now performs also in its superb 21st century concert hall (2006) and its second opera house (2013) built for modern stage technologies.

Following the orchestra’s "golden age" in the second half of the 19th century under the musical direction of Eduard Napravnik, numerous internationally famed musicians have conducted the Orchestra, among them Hans von Bülow, Felix Mottl, Felix Weingartner, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Otto Nikisch, Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Willem Mengelberg, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, and Erich Kleiber.

Renamed the "Kirov" during the Soviet era, the Orchestra continued to maintain its high artistic standards under the leadership of Yevgeny Mravinsky and Yuri Temirkanov. The leadership of Valery Gergiev and the success of the Orchestra's frequent tours hassled to the reputation of what one journalist referred to as "the world's first global orchestra" and has enabled the Theatre to forge important relationships for the Ballet and Opera to appear in the world's greatest opera houses and theatres, among them the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the San Francisco Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Salzburg Festival and La Scala in Milan.

Since its US debut in 1992 the orchestra has made 17 tours of North America, including a 2006 celebration of the complete Shostakovich symphonies, a Cycle of Stage Works of Prokofiev in 2008, major works of Hector Berlioz in February/March 2010, a Centennial Mahler Cycle in Carnegie Hall in October 2010, and in October 2011, the Mariinsky Orchestra opened Carnegie Hall's 120th season with a cycle of Tchaikovsky Symphonies which was also performed throughout the US and in Canada.

Maestro Gergiev established the Mariinsky Label in 2009 and has since released over 20 recordings to date receiving critical acclaim in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Valery Gergiev
Maestro Gergiev is the artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, whose leadership since 1988 has both taken the Mariinsky ballet, opera, and orchestra ensembles to nearly 50 countries and at home has resulted in the building of The Mariinsky Concert Hall (2006), the founding of the Mariinsky Label in (2009) and the new Mariinsky II (May 2013) alongside the classic Mariinsky Theatre.

He is also founder and artistic director of the Stars of the White Nights Festival and New Horizons Festival in St. Petersburg, Moscow Easter Festival, Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival, Mikkeli Music Festival, Red Sea Classical Music Festival in Eilat, Israel, as well as principal conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace.

Principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2007, Mr. Gergiev performs with the LSO at the Barbican Centre, BBC Proms, and Edinburgh International Festival, as well as on extensive tours of Europe, North America, and Asia.

In July 2013 he led the debut international tour of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, an orchestra founded by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. In the fall of 2016, Maestro Gergiev assumes the post of principal conductor of the famed Münchner Philharmoniker.

Gergiev’s recordings continually win awards in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Recent releases on the Mariinsky Label include Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2; Prokofiev Piano Concert No. 3 & Symphony No. 5; Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet; and Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on Bare Mountain, Songs & Dances of Death.

Recent LSO Live releases include Brahms German Requiem; Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Overture: Waverly; and Berlioz Harold en Italie, La mort de Cléopâtre;

Mr. Gergiev has led numerous composer-centered concert cycles in New York, London, and other international cities, featuring the works of Berlioz, Brahms, Dutilleux, Mahler, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, and Wagner’s Ring cycle. He has introduced audiences around the world to several rarely performed Russian operas.

Mr. Gergiev’s many awards include the Dmitri Shostakovich Award, Netherlands’ Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, and the French Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur.

Booklet for Stravinsky: Petrushka, Jeu de cartes