Scherzo à la russe is a 1944 composition by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was initially published by Chappell & Co. in 1945 and premiered in March 1946 by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself. It was later published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Contents
Composition
Stravinsky had been going through economical problems since he moved to America, partially because he lost the royalties from his works in Europe and had to compose more works to exploit them in America. The Scherzo à la russe was first conceived as a work for film use, as it was intended to be featured in The North Star. When the film project was aborted, Stravinsky decided to re-orchestrate it for Paul Whiteman Band. The only two conditions were: the piece had to be easy-listening and it had to fit on a 78 rpm disc. This version for jazz orchestra was premiered in 1944 by Blue Network but, according to Stravinsky scholar Eric Walter White, it didn't seem to be a success. Stravinsky decided to arrange it again in 1945 for symphony orchestra for it to be published and premiered in 1946 at San Francisco.
Analysis
The work takes approximately 4 minutes to perform. It is commonly analysed as follows:
Original jazz version
The symphony jazz orchestra proposed by Paul Whiteman was very atypical for jazz music: 6 saxophones, strings, winds, brass and percussion.
Symphony orchestra version
The second version was just an expanded version of the first. Here is a full list of the instruments featured in it:
Other arrangements
Apart from the symphony version completed in 1945, Stravinsky also wrote a third version for two pianos in 1954; however, it is not so commonly performed.
Notable recordings
Notable recordings of this composition include: