Robin Leggate (tenor)
Diana Montague (mezzo soprano)
Mark Beesley (bass)
London Symphony Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestra
Robert Craft, conductor


Stravinsky's one-act ballet with song, Pulcinella, is no mere re-working of music by Pergolesi and other 18th-century Italian composers.

Instead he uses the originals as a springboard for experimentation, transforming the music into a modern work by means of quirky instrumentation, ostinato melodies, and other 20th-cnetury devices.

The ballet The Fairys Kiss, at another extreme, is a largely original composition. Stravinsky greatly altered, developed, and elaborated melodies from early piano pieces and songs by Tchaikovsky, expanding them into sizeable ballet numbers to form a continuous dance symphony.