On Saturday, April 22 at 8pm, RiverArts® is presenting a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale, a dramatic fable of love, life, and what is worth cherishing. Originally written for seven musicians, three actors, and a dancer, our performance will include a complete reading of the text along with all of Stravinsky’s original music.

The concert, at Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns in Tarrytown, will also include Artistic Director Peter Seidenberg playing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s soul-stirring Cello Sonata, along with Joan Tower’s highly praised 1980 chamber piece Petrushskates. Seidenberg has assembled a stellar group of musicians to interpret this diverse program.

First performed in 1918 towards the end of World War I, Stravinsky was living in Switzerland and wanted to compose a theater piece of modest scale that could be performed in smaller towns. Based on a Russian folk tale, The Runaway Soldier and the Devil, it tells the story of a soldier who trades his violin to the devil in exchange for great wealth. Stravinsky scored the work for seven musicians- a high and low representative from each of three sections of the orchestra- violin and double bass [strings], clarinet and bassoon [winds], and trumpet and trombone [brass]. Additionally, he included a percussionist who performs on numerous percussion instruments, providing a great variety of textures and tones. Stravinsky reveled in percussion sounds and these are often a hallmark of his compositions. This performance of the complete work follows upon our performance of the trio chamber suite version in March of 2022. Singer, actor and songwriter, D.C. Anderson, joins us as actor/narrator.

Joan Tower’s quintet, descriptively titled Petrushskates, was inspired both by a movement from Stravinsky’s Petrushka and by movements of ice skating. She wrote in a program note at the original 1980 performance “While watching the figure skating event at the recent winter Olympics, I became fascinated with the way the curving, twirling, and jumping figure are woven around a singular continuous flowing action. Combining these two ideas creates a kind of carnival on ice – a possible subtitle for this piece.” Derived from a seminal work of Stravinsky, it is both an apt companion to L’Histoire and continues our exploration of contemporary female composers begun at our last concert in March, 2023.

The Sonata for Cello and Piano by Sergei Rachmaninoff is a work of soaring and lyrical beauty. It is symphonic in scope and boasts an abundance of breathtaking romantic melodies which characterize Rachmaninoff’s work at its finest.

Art: Igor’s Soldier’s Tale, (Igor Stravinsky), Oil on cradled birch wood panel, by Patrushka www.patrushka.net

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