CPO Rush Hour

Thanks for joining us! Our next Rush Hour concert is Rush Hour: Best of Mozart on Friday 3 April, so come back and bring a friend. #calgaryphil calgaryphil.com/event/rush-hou…

Want more? You can hear Bartók and Stravinsky again tomorrow, along with Maurice Ravel's shimmering Une barque sur l'ocean, back here at 7:30PM. calgaryphil.com/event/bartok-s…

With that misleading ending, we take our bow and say good night!

Any questions out there? This is your chance to ask us everything you've ever wanted to know about the orchestra!

But then we hear the dissonant sound of Petrushka’s theme. Is this his double, or a ghost? Or is he the real thing, making the character we’ve been following the duplicate?

@CPORush That drum interlude though. Feel that right in the chest!

Recognize this? We spoke to @aztrumpet about it this week! instagram.com/p/B9H0adUpXxv/…

The Moor and Petrushka fight in the last scene of the piece, and in a twist ending, our hero falls. #spoileralert

@c_moreland That's the best thing about music, everyone interprets it differently!

@CPORush I was imagining creatures in the wood! Love knowing what the composer intended

The piece starts at the Shrovetide Fair. The music is bustling, excited, vibrant and full of activity -- stage designer Alexander Benois called it a "symphony of the street."

... After the premiere he found out it was a current-day artist who, luckily for him, was paid out royalties from all performances. Whoops...

As Stravinsky was finishing this work in Nice, France - he heard an organ grinder playing a catchy tune every afternoon outside his window. He assumed it was an old folk tune, so he included it in the first scene of Petrushka...

@CPORush Well, that was intense. 😮

Bartók and Stravinsky had incredible influence on film music of later eras. Bernard Hermann’s famous score for Psycho is clearly indebted to Bartók, while fragments of John Williams scores like Jaws, Star Wars and E.T. can be traced back to Stravinsky.

In the 20th century, the piano would occasionally be added to symphonic works. The piano part in Petrushka is often considered one of the most difficult to play. Tonight - played by @maestrobertsch

Vaslav Nijinsky played the role of Petrushka in the ballet's premiere. His collaborations with Stravinsky were legendary and his contributions to the composer's success were monumental.

Stravinsky was good friends with Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau, all part of Diaghilev’s circle.

In this story, Petrushka is one of three puppets brought to life by an evil magician. He competes with his rival, the Moor, for the affection of the Ballerina.

Stravinsky hit it big on the scene with his first ballet ‘The Firebird,’ commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for his ‘Ballets Russes.’ You may remember 'The Firebird' from Fantasia

And we're just getting started!