Pulcinella: Stravinsky’s Witty Dance with the Past

Previewing the first half of our concert on Saturday 18 October - Stravinsky's "Pulcinella" suite.

When Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella premiered in 1920, audiences expecting another wild, modern explosion from the composer of The Rite of Spring were in for a surprise. Instead of pounding rhythms and pagan rituals, they heard elegant melodies, graceful dances, and music that sounded - well - old. But beneath the powdered wig was a mischievous modern mind at play.

Pulcinella takes its name from a comic character in the Italian commedia dell’arte: a clever, scheming trickster who always seems to wriggle out of trouble. Dressed in white with a long-nosed black mask, Pulcinella is part clown, part philosopher, and entirely unpredictable. His antics inspired the ballet’s plot - a tangle of flirtations, disguises, and mistaken identities set in bustling Naples.

The idea came from Sergei Diaghilev, the visionary impresario behind the Ballets Russes, who handed Stravinsky some 18th-century music then attributed to Pergolesi (now known to be trio sonatas by the Italian composer Dominico Gallo), and asked him to orchestrate it. Stravinsky agreed reluctantly, but soon found himself captivated. Rather than simply arranging the old tunes, he re-imagined them - adding sharp harmonies, fresh rhythms, and his own unmistakable wit. The result was Pulcinella: part baroque masquerade, part 20th-century reinvention.

This charming fusion marked the birth of Stravinsky’s “neoclassical” style, a return to the clarity and balance of earlier music, but filtered through modern ears. Its elegance and humor hide subtle complexities; every phrase feels both familiar and freshly minted.

Listening to Pulcinella is like watching an old master painting spring to life with contemporary colour. Beneath its graceful surface dances the spirit of Pulcinella himself - winking, playful, and full of surprises. Stravinsky may have looked to the past, but with Pulcinella, he created something timeless.

Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite is the first work in our autumn 2025 concert, "The Great and the Graceful", to be performed at High Storrs School, Sheffield on Saturday 18 October. The concert also features Schubert's 9th symphony, "The Great C Major". Further information and tickets available here.