Chamber Circle Presented by Liszt Academy

A mere five years – and a global conflagration – separate two epochal masterpieces by Stravinsky, the ballet The Rite of Spring (1913) and The Soldier’s Tale (1918), a work that genre-wise is difficult to categorize. The former could have been arranged by the composer for a large symphony orchestra; neither earlier nor later was such an ensemble at Stravinsky’s disposal. However, the latter work, The Soldier’s Tale, had to be shaped with more modest expectations but as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. It is hard to believe that ballet music, with its grandiose orchestration mobilizing astounding sound masses, can be brought out in such an illusory way on the piano, but anyone who has heard the four-handed version of the Stravinsky work will know from what occasionally simple and slight material this magnificent music has been wrought, and that even in this form how effective it is. The Soldier’s Tale is performed in its original form under the baton of Martin Rajna, with narration by Pál Mácsai who is now considered a Stravinsky specialist.