STRAVINSKY'S SOLDIER'S TALE Comes to BroadStage This Month

 BroadStage, as part of its Sunday Morning Music / Santa Monica series, presents Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale, narrated by renowned pianist, actor, and playwright Hershey Felder and featuring a musical septet of some of LA Phil's most accomplished musicians, conducted by Elias Peter Brown.
 
The chamber ensemble is made up of Nathan Cole violin; Tom Hooten, trumpet; Andrew Lowy, clarinet; Evan Kuhlmann, bassoon; James Miller, trombone; Chris Hanulik, double bass; and Matthew Howard, percussion. 
 
Elias Peter Brown is making his United States conducting debut with this concert.  He has been named a Salonen Fellow for 2023/24, where he will be personally mentored by Esa-Pekka Salonen and serve as assistant conductor at the San Francisco Symphony, while also working as assistant conductor with the Colburn Conservatory Orchestra in the Nagaunee Conducting Program.  Brown attended Santa Monica High School and holds degrees from Yale University and the Royal Academy of Music.
 
The performance is Sunday, October 15 at 11:00 AM at The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage.  Tickets at $60 are available at broadstage.org or by calling 310.434.3200.
 
Stravinsky’s Soldier's Tale is part of the Sunday Morning Music / Santa Monica concert series.
Award-winning cellist and longtime BroadStage collaborator Antonio Lysy returns to curate a second season of this popular chamber music series, serving as musical alchemist to bring together distinguished artists and audiences from Los Angeles and beyond. Performances include post-show chats with artists over light refreshments to deepen and enrich musical friendships. Lysy is the Musical Director of the Tuscany (Italy) Incontri in Terra di Siena Chamber Music Festival. 
 
Lysy said, “I am absolutely thrilled to welcome you all to our opening concert, where we have the incredible privilege of bringing together a remarkable array of artistic talent. This performance promises to be truly unique, featuring one of my all-time favorite works by Stravinsky, crafted to captivate and inspire audiences of all ages.  Hershey Felder is a dear friend to both me and this extraordinary piece, having performed it with the Chicago Symphony. I am eagerly anticipating the magic he will conjure as he breathes life into the characters within Stravinsky's masterpiece.”
 
“Additionally, it fills me with immense pride to welcome Eli Peter Brown, a native of Santa Monica, back for this highly-anticipated U.S. debut. He will be conducting a mini ensemble of acclaimed soloists, adding another layer of brilliance to this evening's performance.  I invite you all to extend a warm and enthusiastic welcome to our esteemed artists and join me in savoring this exceptional, one-of-a-kind experience -- a world of musical enchantment!”
 
Soldier's Tale is a captivating chamber music piece that tells the story of a soldier who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for unlimited wealth and knowledge. Time weaves its tapestry, as the soldier's violin weeps in longing, battling against the siren call of temptation. Composed during Stravinsky's transitional period, it showcases his innovative use of rhythm, harmonies, and instrumentation. Stravinsky’s presence in Los Angeles greatly influenced the local music scene, inspiring a new generation of composers and performers and contributing to the cultural richness of the city.
 
Stravinsky said of Solder’s Tale in the book Expositions and Developments by Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, “The sort of work I envisaged would have to be small enough in the complement of its players to allow for performances on a circuit of Swiss villages, and simple enough in the outlines of its story to be easily understood.”
 
“The shoestring economics of the original Soldier’s Tale production kept me to a handful of instruments … and my choice of instruments was influenced by a very important event in my life at that time – the discovery of American jazz.  The Soldier’s ensemble resembles the jazz band in that each instrumental category - strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion - Is represented by both treble and bass components.  The instruments themselves are jazz legitimates except for the bassoon, which is my substitution for the saxophone.  The percussion part must also be considered as a manifestation of my enthusiasm for jazz.”
 
“I purchased the instruments from a music shop Lausanne, learning to play them as I composed.   My knowledge of jazz as derived exclusively from copies of sheet music.  As I had never actually heard any of the music performed, I borrowed its rhythmic style not as played but as written.  I could imagine jazz sound.  Jazz meant a wholly new sound in my music and Soldier’s marks my final break with the Russian orchestral school in which I had been fostered.”
 
Sunday Morning Music/Santa Monica series continues with SMM curator Antonio Lysy and Friends (December 17, The Edye) performing a program that includes Alchymia, a new clarinet quintet by Thomas Adès.  The delightful Delirium Musicum, led by violinist Etienne Gara, (January 21, The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage) plays Vivaldi, Shostakovich, and Francesco Geminiani/Corelli.  Finally, Jens Lindemann, one of the world's most celebrated trumpeters (June 9, The Plaza) leads in an ensemble that will include Gara and Lysy.