Stravinsky’s Piano: Genesis of a Musical Language by Graham Griffiths (review)

‘Stravinsky’s Piano’ is an eloquently written monograph that traces the influence of Stravinsky’s pianism on his compositional process. Graham Griffiths explores in meticulous detail how as a composer Stravinsky transferred and transformed fingering patterns, learned from his study of the instrument, when writing piano works and other repertory. To set the stage for his inquiry, the author traces the pedagogical approaches used by Stravinsky’s piano teachers in his early years in St Petersburg and later in Paris; establishes Stravinsky’s interest in contrapuntal procedures, especially in the keyboard music of J. S. Bach, that would continue until his final days; provides documentary evidence of Stravinsky’s intuitive improvisatory skills at the keyboard; and acknowledges Rimsky-Korsakov’s guidance, which inspired Stravinsky to compose at the piano. Most importantly, Griffiths establishes a philosophical framework for his discussions by examining utterances by Stravinsky and others regarding expressivity and objectivity. In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion, there are four chapters: (1) ‘Becoming a Russian musician’, (2) Becoming a neoclassicist’, (3) ‘Stravinsky’s piano workshop’, and (4) ‘Departures and homecomings’.

In the first chapter, Griffiths credits the contribution of Rimsky-Korsakov not only for cultivating Stravinsky’s skill in the art of orchestration ‘but also in terms of his view of the eighteenth century, of “Bach”, of craft and objectivity—issues which would become particularly vital to Stravinsky’s neoclassicism’ (p. 13). Indeed, his insight that as Stravinsky was ‘becoming a Russian musician’, he was also being versed in contrapuntal techniques through his studies with Rimsky-Korsakov is very powerful. In my experience of studying the musical sketches for Stravinsky’s Renard (1916), it is clear that Stravinsky was at times focusing on fugal techniques at one level of the textural layering for this pivotal work, foreshadowing the later development of his neoclassicism (After the Rite (Oxford, forthcoming)). It is very likely, then, that Stravinsky’s attention to counterpoint in Renard and in other works was an outcome of his studies with Rimsky-Korsakov. It is also possible that Taneyev’s Fourth Symphony, with which Stravinsky was familiar (Taruskin, Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions (Berkeley, 1999), 187; cited p. 12), served as a compositional model for his use of contrapuntal techniques. Moreover, Griffiths reminds us that Rimsky-Korsakov also guided Stravinsky in expanding his approach to the piano: ‘(1) as a practical aid to composition; (2) as a solo concert instrument; and (3) as an effective vehicle, when used to accompany the voice, for projecting orchestral evocations’ (p. 13).

Stravinsky was the beneficiary of the pedagogical techniques espoused by his piano teacher Leokadiya Aleksandrovna Kashperova, who was a proponent of the teachings of Theodor Leschetizky—though as Griffiths suggests, she did not always acknowledge this influence (p. 18). The narrative that Griffiths presents about the sometimes opposing pedagogies of St Petersburg and Moscow is truly fascinating and serves as the backdrop for a discussion of Stravinsky’s early piano works. It is through an analysis of these pieces that Griffiths begins to show how Stravinsky relied on the technical exercises learned in St Petersburg as inspiration for his compositional process. This was also the case when Stravinsky studied with Isidor Philipp in Paris, at a time when he was writing his second Piano Sonata (completed in 1924). Griffiths acknowledges Charles Joseph’s foundational research on the linkages between Philipp’s fingering patterns and Stravinsky’s second piano sonata (Charles M. Joseph, Stravinsky Remembered (New Haven, 2001), 91; cited p. 5).

Another aspect of Stravinsky’s neoclassicism is found in his attention to the art of transcriptions and arrangements, as pointed out by Griffiths in reference to the ‘Valse’ arranged as a Trio from Histoire du soldat (original work completed 1918) (p. 87). The fingerings assigned by Stravinsky to the piano part for the ‘Valse’ result in a choreography involving the hands and arms that is almost ‘balletic’, thus reinforcing...