MusicaNova Orchestra Laughing with Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Haydn

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MusicaNova Orchestra has a reputation for its truly remarkable programming. You will find music performed there that you won’t encounter anywhere else.

—Ross Amico, WWFM

Repertoire:

Sergei Prokofiev, Classical Symphony

Igor Stravinsky, Pulcinella Suite

Joseph Haydn, Symphony no. 60 (Il Distrato)

Mozart, Overture to The Magic Flute

The MusicaNova Orchestra is a professional ensemble that features new music, unjustly neglected pieces, and fresh interpretations of classics. These first three pieces, rarely ever played together, share the use of parody and pastiche (a musical term for music of a particular period written in a style not of that period).

Prokofiev, for instance, begins with a Haydn-esque tune, then abruptly switches keys. Haydn did this in Symphony no. 60, with the same abrupt modulation, to portray his subject as an absent-minded man who forgets what key he is in. Haydn’s symphony is a pastiche of baroque styles but sounds remarkably modern. Here, Prokofiev writes in the style of Haydn, and Haydn essentially previews Prokofiev and the music he would write two centuries later.

Stravinsky’s score for the ballet Pulcinella repurposes music from the 18^th century. The notes are the same, but the chords and orchestration are Stravinsky’s own.