LDV104

17 JEAN-BAPTISTE FONLUPT These are eminently pianistic pieces, which call for a high degree of virtuosity. Yes, they’re fearsome to play, especially the Three PIeces from ‘Petrushka’ , written on three or sometimes four staves, which require absolutely cast-iron technique. However, the writing always takes account of the capacity of the hand: Stravinsky was a pianist himself, and what he composed, though extremely difficult, is physically possible. Virtuosity is understood here in its ‘virtuous’ sense: it is intelligently thought out and written. That makes it an exhilarating experience to practise these works, to perform them, when you really have them in your fingers. Do the Petrushka pieces sound the same way as they do on the orchestra? These pieces form a suite of three movements drawn from the score of the ballet, written at the request of Arthur Rubinstein. Stravinsky didn’t intend to transpose the orchestra onto the piano. Heard alone, the piano sounds with a different energy, more percussive, with colours you don’t find in the orchestra, even though the scoring of the original version includes a piano. Nevertheless, Ravel and Prokofiev were pianists, like Stravinsky, and the orchestra and the piano come together in their works, sharing a high degree of proximity. So I soon realised that I needed to work with the orchestral scores. Whereas you have to delve into your imagination to find appropriate timbres in essentially pianistic works, the question of timbre is perfectly tangible here.