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In a week of programmes dedicated to the myths and masks and rituals of Igor Stravinsky, Kate Molleson explores the years of Stravinsky’s exile from Russia during WW1.

Stravinsky spend almost all his working life in one sort of exile or another. First he left Russia for France, then at the start of the First World War he left France for neutral Switzerland where he lived near Lausanne surrounded by Russian artist refugees.

He didn’t return to Russia for 50 years but his homeland loomed large in his imagination. Marooned in landlocked Switzerland, he pined for Russia as he would for the rest of his life – and that homesickness took on all sorts of guises. In another sense, the distance was useful. He was free to reinvent a Russia of the mind, refracted through memory, nostalgia and myth.

King Ki Ki
Little Tich

Excentrique, from Three Pieces for String Quartet
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Four Russian Peasant Songs
La Maîtrise de Toulouse
Mark Opstad, director

The Mechanical Nightingale, from Song of the Nightingale
New York Philharmonic
Pierre Boulez, conductor

Renard (excerpts)
Paris National Opera Chorus & Orchestra
James Conlon, conductor

Soldier’s Tale (excerpts)
Jean Cocteau, narrator

The Wedding Feast, from Les Noces
MusicAeterna
Teodor Currentzis, conductor