1919: Suite from ‘The Soldier's Tale’

Extract

The five-movement suite from The Soldier's Tale is a trio for clarinet, violin and piano which was written shortly after the original stage work of 1918 (scored for clarinet, bassoon, cornet, trombone, percussion, violin, double bass, male speaker and female dancer). On musical evidence alone, it would be almost impossible to discover which version came first; and the same is true of the other works by Stravinsky which exist in two instrumental forms—including Agon, with its remarkable ‘double’ for two pianos, The Rite of Spring, with its piano duet version, and the Eight Easy Pieces for piano duet, which are also available as two suites for small orchestra.