Exiled in Switzerland and trying to scrape a living for himself whilst the Great War raged across Europe, Stravinsky wrote the iconic Soldier's Tale. This travelling theatre piece was a huge shift in scale for a composer used to penning works for the grandest ballet company of the time, Les Ballet Russes, in Paris. The Russian folktale of a soldier encountering the devil who tries to trick him into gambling away his precious violin served as an apt moral commentary on the time. The Soldier's Tale was only made possibly through the generous patronage of Weiner Reinhard to whom clarinetists owe a debt of thanks as the Three Pieces for solo clarinet were dedicated to Reinhard in recognition of his considerable financial support in the project. 

These short character pieces are brilliantly concise and evocative, skilfully capturing the essence of the composer at this moment of tumultuous change. They simultaneously look back to his Punch and Judy ballet Petrouchka and forward to his obsession with jazz and ragtime, that was sweeping Western Europe in the war years.

Join me as I share my passion and incite into these wonderful diamonds of the early 20 Century canon.