This special broadcast concert recreates a programme of Stravinsky’s works that was performed at Wigmore Hall exactly 101 years ago, on 20 July 1920. For today’s performance the pieces are interspersed with reviews and reactions from the time, as well as other items of historical context, read by Ivan Hewett and Emily Berrington. The programme includes 3 Pieces for Clarinet, which Stravinsky wrote as a thank-you gift to the philanthropist and arts patron Werner Reinhart and which received its English première at the 1920 concert, and the Suite from L’histoire du soldat, which similarly had its concert performance première at Wigmore Hall that day.
Writer, broadcaster and critic, Ivan Hewett, who devised the concert with Wigmore Hall’s Director John Gilhooly, described the process behind the concert’s creation:
“The idea for this concert emerged from some research I was doing at the Royal College of Music, on how critics responded to the shock of “beastly modern music”. As I was trawling through newspaper archives I noticed many reviews popping up for one particular Wigmore Hall concert. I looked a little closer and realised it was an all-Stravinsky concert given on July 20 1920. It was attended by lots of the glitterati and had a wonderful programme in Stravinsky’s new stripped-down style which prompted a fair amount of critical bile but lots of excitement as well. This made me think, ‘Wouldn't it be great to recreate the concert on its 101st anniversary, complete with the critic’s responses to give a sense of the era?’ Fortunately the Hall’s Director John Gilhooly agreed, and here we are with the concert all ready to go on Tuesday, performed by a wonderful bunch of performers including the mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska.”