LDV117

18 POULENC ∙ STRAVINSKY ∙ PROKOFIEV This programme couples two wartime sonatas. Poulenc wrote his piece in 1942 as a tribute to Federico García Lorca. Prokofiev wrote his at the same time, in a very sombre atmosphere. Stravinsky escaped both wars, but he was a symbol of the welcome the Russians received from the French and the incredible fertility that resulted from their encounter. These are wider, bigger bridges, which go far beyond even the most atrocious current events. You can’t be a violinist and not know about the outstanding school that grew up in Ukraine, in Odessa where Piotr Stoliarsky trained David Oistrakh and Nathan Milstein. When Toscanini conducted his NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York, it was full of Jewish musicians who came from Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa or St Petersburg. Stravinsky’s Divertimento is the most festive part of your programme, with a work that makes one want to get up and dance . . . David Grimal: Absolutely, just like many of his ballets. The piece is a quite brilliant transcription of the ballet The Fairy’s Kiss , which he made with the violinist Samuel Dushkin, his touring companion. Stravinsky is a composer I adore, having had the good fortune to play his orchestral works with my ensemble Les Dissonances: the perfection of language and form, the nobility, the humour, the darkness, and at the same time an extraordinary delicacy. This highly virtuosic transcription is a masterpiece, offering a very close-knit dialogue with the piano.