{"id":6355,"date":"2026-02-12T14:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/?p=6355"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T10:04:20","slug":"mdwp004-006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/mdwp004-006\/","title":{"rendered":"Petrushka\u2019s Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"author\"><em>Jeremy Coleman<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6691-9365\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png\" alt=\"orcid\" width=\"19\" height=\"19\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"#fn1\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref1\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<head><\/p>\n<style>\n        .tsquotation strong {\n            font-weight: bold;\n        }\n        .tsquotation em {\n            font-style: italic !important;\n        }\n        .bibliography {\n            margin-top: -1em !important;\n            padding-left: 22px;\n            text-indent: -22px;\n        }\nfigure {\n            margin: 0;\n }<\/p>\n<p> table {\n      line-height: 1.4;\n    border-collapse: collapse;\n    width: 100%;\nfont-family: inherit;\n  }<\/p>\n<p>table p {\n      margin: 0;\n    }\n  th, td {\n    border: 1px solid black;\n    padding: 8px;\n    text-align: left;\n    vertical-align: top;\n  }\n  thead tr {\n    background-color: #e0e0e0;\n }\n  th {\n    text-transform: none;\n  }\n    <\/style>\n<p><\/head><\/p>\n<div class=\"one_half\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class='bdaia-btns bdaia-btn-medium' style=\"background:#b2b2b2 !important;color:#000000 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-005\/\" style=\"color:#000000 !important;\">&#129028;<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"one_half last\">\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span class='bdaia-btns bdaia-btn-medium' style=\"background:#b2b2b2 !important;color:#000000 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-007\" style=\"color:#000000 !important;\">&#129030;<\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"clear-fix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"bdaia-toggle close\"><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-open\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-up\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">How to cite<\/span><\/h4><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-close\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-down\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">How to cite<\/span><\/h4><div class=\"toggle-content\"><p>\n<div id=\"zotpress-b556fbf808f122de7fd0ebde5249c7a3\" class=\"zp-Zotpress zp-Zotpress-Bib wp-block-group\">\n\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_API_USER_ID ZP_ATTR\">4511395<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ITEM_KEY ZP_ATTR\">{4511395:59RQ7BHI}<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_COLLECTION_ID ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_TAG_ID ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_AUTHOR ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_YEAR ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n        <span class=\"ZP_ITEMTYPE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_INCLUSIVE ZP_ATTR\">1<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_STYLE ZP_ATTR\">chicago-author-date<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_LIMIT ZP_ATTR\">50<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SORTBY ZP_ATTR\">default<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ORDER ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_TITLE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SHOWIMAGE ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_SHOWTAGS ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_DOWNLOADABLE ZP_ATTR\">1<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_NOTES ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_ABSTRACT ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_CITEABLE ZP_ATTR\">1<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_TARGET ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_URLWRAP ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZP_FORCENUM ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n        <span class=\"ZP_HIGHLIGHT ZP_ATTR\"><\/span>\n        <span class=\"ZP_POSTID ZP_ATTR\">6355<\/span>\n\t\t<span class=\"ZOTPRESS_PLUGIN_URL ZP_ATTR\">https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/plugins\/zotpress\/<\/span>\n\n\t\t<div class=\"zp-List loading\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"zp-SEO-Content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"ZP_JSON ZP_ATTR\">%7B%22status%22%3A%22success%22%2C%22updateneeded%22%3Afalse%2C%22instance%22%3Afalse%2C%22meta%22%3A%7B%22request_last%22%3A0%2C%22request_next%22%3A0%2C%22used_cache%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22data%22%3A%5B%7B%22key%22%3A%2259RQ7BHI%22%2C%22library%22%3A%7B%22id%22%3A4511395%7D%2C%22meta%22%3A%7B%22creatorSummary%22%3A%22Coleman%22%2C%22parsedDate%22%3A%222026%22%2C%22numChildren%22%3A0%7D%2C%22bib%22%3A%22%26lt%3Bdiv%20class%3D%26quot%3Bcsl-bib-body%26quot%3B%20style%3D%26quot%3Bline-height%3A%201.35%3B%20padding-left%3A%201em%3B%20text-indent%3A-1em%3B%26quot%3B%26gt%3B%5Cn%20%20%26lt%3Bdiv%20class%3D%26quot%3Bcsl-entry%26quot%3B%26gt%3BColeman%2C%20Jeremy.%202026.%20%26%23x201C%3BPetrushka%26%23x2019%3Bs%20Survival.%26%23x201D%3B%20In%20%26lt%3Bi%26gt%3BMusic%20and%20Motion%20%26%23x2013%3B%20Interweaving%20Artistic%20Practice%20and%20Theory%20in%20Dance%20and%20Beyond%26lt%3B%5C%2Fi%26gt%3B%2C%20edited%20by%20Stephanie%20Schroedter.%20Vienna%20and%20Bielefeld.%20%26lt%3Ba%20title%3D%26%23039%3BCite%20in%20RIS%20Format%26%23039%3B%20class%3D%26%23039%3Bzp-CiteRIS%26%23039%3B%20data-zp-cite%3D%26%23039%3Bapi_user_id%3D4511395%26amp%3Bitem_key%3D59RQ7BHI%26%23039%3B%20href%3D%26%23039%3Bjavascript%3Avoid%280%29%3B%26%23039%3B%26gt%3BCite%26lt%3B%5C%2Fa%26gt%3B%20%26lt%3B%5C%2Fdiv%26gt%3B%5Cn%26lt%3B%5C%2Fdiv%26gt%3B%22%2C%22data%22%3A%7B%22itemType%22%3A%22bookSection%22%2C%22title%22%3A%22Petrushka%5Cu2019s%20Survival%22%2C%22creators%22%3A%5B%7B%22creatorType%22%3A%22editor%22%2C%22firstName%22%3A%22Stephanie%22%2C%22lastName%22%3A%22Schroedter%22%7D%2C%7B%22creatorType%22%3A%22author%22%2C%22firstName%22%3A%22Jeremy%22%2C%22lastName%22%3A%22Coleman%22%7D%5D%2C%22abstractNote%22%3A%22%22%2C%22bookTitle%22%3A%22Music%20and%20Motion%20%5Cu2013%20Interweaving%20Artistic%20Practice%20and%20Theory%20in%20Dance%20and%20Beyond%22%2C%22date%22%3A%222026%22%2C%22originalDate%22%3A%22%22%2C%22originalPublisher%22%3A%22%22%2C%22originalPlace%22%3A%22%22%2C%22format%22%3A%22%22%2C%22ISBN%22%3A%22978-3-8376-5611-4%22%2C%22DOI%22%3A%22%22%2C%22citationKey%22%3A%22%22%2C%22url%22%3A%22%22%2C%22ISSN%22%3A%22%22%2C%22language%22%3A%22en%22%2C%22collections%22%3A%5B%22C96IEEWM%22%5D%2C%22dateModified%22%3A%222026-02-09T09%3A41%3A50Z%22%7D%7D%5D%7D<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"zp-ID-6355-4511395-59RQ7BHI\" data-zp-author-date='Coleman-2026' data-zp-date-author='2026-Coleman' data-zp-date='2026' data-zp-year='2026' data-zp-itemtype='bookSection' class=\"zp-Entry zpSearchResultsItem\">\n<div class=\"csl-bib-body\" style=\"line-height: 1.35; padding-left: 1em; text-indent:-1em;\">\n  <div class=\"csl-entry\">Coleman, Jeremy. 2026. \u201cPetrushka\u2019s Survival.\u201d In <i>Music and Motion \u2013 Interweaving Artistic Practice and Theory in Dance and Beyond<\/i>, edited by Stephanie Schroedter. Vienna and Bielefeld. <a title='Cite in RIS Format' class='zp-CiteRIS' data-zp-cite='api_user_id=4511395&item_key=59RQ7BHI' href='javascript:void(0);'>Cite<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-Entry .zpSearchResultsItem -->\n\t\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-zp-SEO-Content -->\n\t\t<\/div><!-- .zp-List -->\n\t<\/div><!--.zp-Zotpress-->\n\n\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"bdaia-toggle close\"><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-open\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-up\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">Abstract<\/span><\/h4><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-close\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-down\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">Abstract<\/span><\/h4><div class=\"toggle-content\"><p>\nFirst performed in Paris, 1911, the \u201cburlesque\u201d ballet Petrushka stands today as a central work of the modernist canon and an unruly assemblage of artistic media that eludes any attempt to define it simply in terms of a single \u201cauthor\u201d or as a work independent of its original production. In this chapter, I focus on Petrushka\u2019s reputation precisely as a concert work\u2014its various instrumental reductions, transcriptions, performances, and their own reception history\u2014as a lens through which to consider the relationship between music and (choreographic) motion. Through a brief analysis of the 1965 Swedish television film of Stravinsky\u2019s Three Movements from Petrushka performed by Alexis Weissenberg and directed by \u00c5ke Falck, I consider Petrushka\u2019s life, and that of the work\u2019s eponymous puppet, beyond the theater, and examine in what ways the extra-musical elements of the original work were either erased or preserved in \u201cpurely musical\u201d versions.<br \/>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"bdaia-toggle close\"><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-open\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-up\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">Outline<\/span><\/h4><h4 class=\"bdaia-toggle-head toggle-head-close\"><span class=\"bdaia-sio bdaia-sio-angle-down\"><\/span><span class=\"txt\">Outline<\/span><\/h4><div class=\"toggle-content\"><p>\n<a href=\"#1\"><em>Petrushka<\/em> in Concert<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#2\">Translation as Survival<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#3\">Choreographed for Piano and Two Hands<\/a><br \/>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<hr>\n<p><!-- \n\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">[btn btnlink=\"\" btnsize=\"medium\" bgcolor=\"#b2b2b2\" txtcolor=\"#000000\" btnnewt=\"1\" nofollow=\"1\"]CHAPTER PDF <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/download-1459070_1280.png\" style=\"vertical-align: middle\" alt=\"Download-Logo\" width=\"17\" height=\"17\">[\/btn]\n\n --><\/p>\n<p>First performed in Paris, 1911, the \u201cburlesque\u201d ballet Petrushka stands today as a central work of the modernist canon and an unruly assemblage of artistic media that eludes any attempt to define it simply in terms of a single \u201cauthor\u201d or as a work independent of its original production. In this chapter, I focus on Petrushka\u2019s reputation precisely as a concert work\u2014its various instrumental reductions, transcriptions, performances, and their own reception history\u2014as a lens through which to consider the relationship between music and (choreographic) motion. Through a brief analysis of the 1965 Swedish television film of Stravinsky\u2019s Three Movements from Petrushka performed by Alexis Weissenberg and directed by \u00c5ke Falck, I consider Petrushka\u2019s life, and that of the work\u2019s eponymous puppet, beyond the theater, and examine in what ways the extra-musical elements of the original work were either erased or preserved in \u201cpurely musical\u201d versions.<\/p>\n<p>The product of a fraught collaboration between creative artists in dance, music, theater, visual arts, and folkloristics, the \u201cburlesque\u201d ballet <em>Petrushka<\/em> stands today as a central work of the modernist canon and at the same time an unruly assemblage of artistic media that eludes any straightforward attempt to define it in terms of a single author or as a work independent of its original production (Paris, 1911). There is no reason to suppose that <em>Petrushka<\/em>\u2019s reception has been any less multifaceted than the circumstances of its origins. Christoph Flamm writes in conclusion to a recent encyclopedia entry on the work: \u201cThe broader cultural reception history of <em>Petrushka<\/em> remains to be discovered.\u201d<a href=\"#fn2\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref2\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a> Flamm offers some attractive signposts for future research here: the central notion of the \u201cgrotesque\u201d in <em>Petrushka<\/em> arguably anticipates the use of the term by Vsevolod Meyerhold, and there is a possible connection between the carnival setting of the ballet and Mikhail Bakhtin\u2019s celebrated concept of the \u201ccarnivalesque.\u201d Whatever the exact relationship in either of these cases, <em>Petrushka<\/em>\u2019s role within twentieth-century ideas and culture has been underestimated.<\/p>\n<p>And yet it may be <em>Petrushka<\/em>\u2019s reputation precisely as a concert work in various versions\u2014its reputation, in other words, as <em>Stravinsky\u2019s<\/em>\u2014that has been the least explored facet of the ballet and its reception. Given its original form as a multimedia ballet work, the work\u2019s parallel existence as a \u201cpurely musical\u201d work for the concert hall,<a href=\"#fn3\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref3\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>3<\/sup><\/a> or as a suite of \u201cscenes\u201d extracted from it, may offer a productive point of view from which to consider the relations between music, choreography, and the performer\u2019s body. Such a mode of performance, transcription and reception is by no means unique to <em>Petrushka<\/em>: the three ballet scores Stravinsky produced for Diaghilev\u2019s Ballets Russes between 1909 and 1913 owe their present-day popular and canonical status less to fully staged productions than to concert performances, transcriptions for chamber settings, and audio recordings. It is an aspect of the reception history of the ballets that has been overlooked, most likely because it has been taken for granted as the works\u2019 inevitable fate. In what respects <em>Petrushka<\/em> is a unique case in this respect will be considered below.<\/p>\n<p>This chapter seeks to probe the phenomenon of <em>Petrushka<\/em>\u2019s life beyond the theater, in an attempt to think through an aspect of the work by no means limited to its reception history. The chapter begins with an overview of <em>Petrushka<\/em>\u2019s performance versions and arrangements in dialogue with key moments in the work\u2019s collaborative genesis. There follows a discussion of concepts of translation and media via Adorno and Benjamin. The chapter will close with a discussion of Stravinsky\u2019s <em>Three Movements from Petrushka<\/em> for piano and in particular the 1965 Swedish television film of the piano work performed by Alexis Weissenberg. Through a close reading of the film in light of <em>Petrushka<\/em>\u2019s broader critical legacy, this essay considers whether the \u201cpurely musical\u201d versions erase or in some sense preserve the theatrical and choreographic elements of the original ballet.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"1\"><em>Petrushka<\/em> in Concert<\/h4>\n<p>In his essay on the final scene of Wagner\u2019s <em>Tristan und Isolde<\/em>, John Deathridge focused on the role of \u201cabsolute music,\u201d of purely musical beauty, in relation to the social reality of Isolde\u2019s death and transfiguration. Whereas Catherine Cl\u00e9ment had interpreted this moment of musical magnificence as an ideological trait of opera in general, where beautiful music conceals the gendered violence meted out to the lead soprano character, for Deathridge the musically absolute is implicated in the violence it simultaneously attempts to exclude.<a href=\"#fn4\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref4\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>4<\/sup><\/a> He noted the ease with which Isolde\u2019s so-called Transfiguration can be performed independently as an instrumental concert number, with the soprano vocal line simply omitted, one of the more literal illustrations of a dialectical interplay between the Schopenhauerian metaphysics of instrumental music, on the one hand, and the disquieting message of Isolde\u2019s annihilation, on the other.<a href=\"#fn5\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref5\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>5<\/sup><\/a> In his discussion of the scene and its reception history, including in Nazi Germany, Deathridge highlights a subtle \u201ccontract\u201d or \u201calliance\u201d between \u201cthe extramusical and absolute music.\u201d<a href=\"#fn6\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref6\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>6<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Similarly, in approaching <em>Petrushka<\/em>, I am not aiming to simply excavate social meaning from a work that has become a modernist classic and a canonical text for music theory, so much as to unravel a kind of pact between Stravinsky\u2019s \u201cautonomous\u201d music and the extramusical contexts in which it first emerged. In the case of Stravinsky\u2019s ballet works, the category of the \u201cextramusical\u201d may include theatrical and choreographic entities from which the music became isolated as a work for the concert hall or as audio recordings. My argument thus chimes with Arved Ashby\u2019s 2010 monograph on sound recording technology as a medium in which \u201cabsolute music\u201d was variously challenged and preserved as a normative ideal.<a href=\"#fn7\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref7\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>7<\/sup><\/a> In focusing on <em>Petrushka<\/em>, I want to expand the discussion of classical music and modern media by considering not only canonical orchestral works originally intended for the concert hall but also music-theatrical works rendered \u201cabsolute music\u201d in some sense of the term and at the same time living on in variously mediated forms.<\/p>\n<table style=\"width:97%; border-collapse: collapse; line-height:1.4;\">\n<colgroup>\n<col style=\"width: 24%\" \/>\n<col style=\"width: 24%\" \/>\n<col style=\"width: 24%\" \/>\n<col style=\"width: 24%\" \/> <\/colgroup>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><strong>Title<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Composition<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>First performance<\/strong><\/th>\n<th><strong>Publication<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><em>Petrushka<\/em>, sc\u00e8nes burlesques en quatre tableaux [burlesque in four scenes]<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Begun in Clarens (Switzerland), August-September 1910, finished in Rome, 26th May 1911<\/p>\n<p>Revision:<br \/> Hollywood, Oct. 1946<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Original ballet: Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Ch\u00e2telet, Paris, 13th June 1911<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Berlin, \u00c9dition Russe de Musique (hereafter ERM), 1912 (score and parts), reissued by Boosey &amp; Hawkes, 1947<\/p>\n<p>Revision: London,<br \/> Boosey &amp; Hawkes, 1948<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><em>Petrushka<\/em>, reduction for piano (four hands)<\/td>\n<td>Rome, May 1911<\/td>\n<td>n\/a<\/td>\n<td>Berlin, ERM, 1912, rev. 1913, rev. 1947 version published by Boosey &amp; Hawkes, 1948<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><em>Trois Mouvements de P\u00e9trouchka<\/em> [<em>Three Movements from Petrushka<\/em>], transcription for solo piano<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Anglet (France), August-September 1921<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>Paris, 26th December 1922, performed by Jean Wiener<\/td>\n<td>Paris, ERM, 1922; London, Boosey &amp; Hawkes, 1947<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><em>Danse Russe<\/em>, transcription for violin and piano by the composer and Samuel Dushkin<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Voreppe (France), 17th Apr. 1932<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Funkhaus, Berlin, 28th Oct. 1932, performed by Dushkin and Stravinsky<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>Paris, ERM, 1933<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Table\u00a01<\/strong> A Catalogue of Petrushkas<a href=\"#fn8\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref8\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>8<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Table\u00a01 summarizes catalogue information about <em>Petrushka<\/em> and its authentic versions, namely the three reductions or transcriptions produced by the composer.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Three Movements from Petrushka<\/em> for solo piano and the <em>Danse Russe<\/em> for violin and piano were evidently conceived as recital showpieces, whereas the four-hand reduction probably had the more utilitarian function as a short score for rehearsals with the dancers. Table\u00a01 does not list the concert suite of <em>Petrushka<\/em>, since Stravinsky never published it as a distinct version of the work. However, when <em>Petrushka<\/em> received its first performance in Russia in early 1913, for instance, it was in the form of concert excerpts: the \u201cDanse russe\u201d at the close of the first tableau, the second tableau (\u201cChez P\u00e9trouchka\u201d), and the fourth and final tableau (\u201cLa semaine grasse\u201d) with a recomposed ending.<a href=\"#fn9\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref9\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>9<\/sup><\/a> It may be noted that the ad hoc concert suite consisted of the same selection of numbers that Stravinsky would use a decade later as the basis of his <em>Three Movements from Petrushka<\/em> for piano.<\/p>\n<p>This emphasis on concert performance applies to all three of Stravinsky\u2019s celebrated ballet works written between 1909 and 1913\u2014<em>The Firebird<\/em>, <em>Petrushka<\/em>, and <em>The Rite of Spring<\/em>\u2014and represents nothing less than an ideological rebranding of the works prompted by the composer and his attempt in various autobiographical accounts to downplay the contribution of others in the works\u2019 conception and genesis. What sets <em>Petrushka<\/em> apart in this respect is the peculiar musical allegory embedded in the work from the very start. As the story goes, in September 1910 Stravinsky conceived of a \u201cconcert piece\u201d for orchestra (he used the German term <em>Konzertst\u00fcck<\/em>) \u201cin which the piano would play the most important part.\u201d<a href=\"#fn10\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref10\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>10<\/sup><\/a> For all that the factual accuracy of Stravinsky\u2019s account has been called into question, his autobiographical writings are nonetheless valuable in that his account of <em>Petrushka<\/em> reflects something of the social dynamic of the original idea. For example, the account of <em>Petrushka<\/em>\u2019s musical conception in <em>Chroniques de ma vie<\/em> (published first in French in 1935, and then in English translation in 1936) is often quoted but to my knowledge has yet to be analyzed with reference to the work\u2019s broader critical history:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">In composing the music, I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of <em>arpeggi<\/em>. The orchestra in turn retaliates with menacing trumpet-blasts. The outcome is a terrific noise which reaches its climax and ends in the sorrowful and querulous collapse of the poor puppet.<a href=\"#fn11\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref11\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>11<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And in a similar account seven years prior, Stravinsky was quoted in an interview:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">In my initial conception, I saw a man in evening dress, wearing his hair long: the musician or the poet of Romantic tradition. He sat himself at the piano and rolled incongruous objects on the keyboard, while the orchestra burst out with vehement protests, with sonic fist-punches.<a href=\"#fn12\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref12\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>12<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A complete account of <em>Petrushka<\/em>\u2019s early genesis will probably always remain elusive; however, it seems that Stravinsky\u2019s original idea, a grotesque parody of the Romantic concert pianist, was already bound up with the idea of social violence that would be the template, so to speak, for the character of the puppet Petrushka. It may also be noted that the belligerent exchanges between piano and orchestra remained an important feature of the final work.<\/p>\n<p>Christoph Flamm has identified the process of \u201cturning Petrushka, the active principle of aggression, into Pierrot, the passive principle of suffering\u201d as \u201cthe result of Diaghilev\u2019s intervention and, above all, Benois\u2019s elaboration.\u201d<a href=\"#fn13\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref13\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>13<\/sup><\/a> The observation bears further interpretation: the nature of the collaborative process behind <em>Petrushka<\/em> (namely Stravinsky\u2019s working relationship with Diaghilev, Benois, Fokine, Nijinsky, Karsavina, and so on) mirrors Petrushka\u2019s own character and narrative trajectory. The grotesque, anarchic figure of the Romantic pianist is tempered\u2014symbolically castrated, in psychoanalytic terms\u2014at the moment he comes to be identified with the commedia dell\u2019arte puppet as a figure of tragic suffering. The early compositional history of the ballet thus prefigures a dynamic of social violence and its suppression, providing a critical frame not only for the ballet work itself but for the concert interpretations of <em>Petrushka<\/em> in which the piano soloist is once again foregrounded.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"2\">Translation as Survival<\/h4>\n<p>Jonathan Dunsby noted the \u201cmenacing immortality\u201d of the clown archetype in Schoenberg\u2019s <em>Pierrot lunaire<\/em> (first performed in 1912) as well as in <em>Petrushka<\/em>, two works of music theater almost exactly contemporaneous and in many ways comparable: \u201cit is as if the Pierrot into whom [Schoenberg] breathed life has gone on to shape his own history, to frighten us into believing that he emerged from nowhere, has no ancestors, no attachments and, most provocatively, cannot die.\u201d<a href=\"#fn14\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref14\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>14<\/sup><\/a> Dunsby implies a metonymic identification between Schoenberg\u2019s titular protagonist and the work as a whole, and this suggestion of a spectral haunting takes on further significance in the case of <em>Petrushka<\/em> in light of the various concert versions in which the work has been disseminated. Petrushka is killed in the final duel with his romantic rival, the \u201cMoor,\u201d but his ghost returns at the last moment, thumbing his nose at the Old Magician who brought him to life,<a href=\"#fn15\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref15\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>15<\/sup><\/a> just as the work recedes from the \u201cpresence\u201d of the fully staged ballet production and takes on another life in the concert hall.<\/p>\n<p>Already in his <em>Philosophie der neuen Musik<\/em> (1949), Theodor Adorno observed parallels and divergences between the two works, in turn crediting Egon Wellesz with the comparison: \u201c<em>Pierrot<\/em> and <em>Petrushka,<\/em> as well as Strauss\u2019s <em>Till Eulenspiegel\u2014<\/em>so distinctly audible several times in Stravinsky\u2019s ballet<em>\u2014<\/em>survive their own demise.\u201d<a href=\"#fn16\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref16\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>16<\/sup><\/a> The typographical ambiguity between Adorno\u2019s original published German text and the standard English translation by Robert Hullot-Kentor\u2014does the name \u201cPetrushka\u201d refer to the eponymous protagonist or to the work?\u2014expresses the same metonymy implied by Dunsby: the work and protagonist seem to share an identical fate.<a href=\"#fn17\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref17\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>17<\/sup><\/a> Not only does the ghost of Petrushka appear in the ballet\u2019s final moments, but Stravinsky\u2019s ballet score, too, \u201csurvives.\u201d The work\u2019s \u201csurvival\u201d in various concert arrangements and paratheatrical media may indeed be a kind of uncanny, spectral haunting\u2014even an act of revenge by the composer-pianist on his theatrical collaborators who, as we have already seen, had turned him from a parodic, diabolical aggressor into a sentimental, tragic victim.<\/p>\n<p>Adorno used the word <em>\u00fcberleben<\/em> (to survive, to live on) to describe both Schoenberg\u2019s <em>Pierrot<\/em> and Stravinsky\u2019s <em>Petrushka<\/em>. The substantive <em>\u00dcberleben<\/em> appears once, in enigmatic quotation marks, in one of the most influential essays on literary translation ever written: \u201cDie Aufgabe des \u00dcbersetzers\u201d (1923) [The Translator\u2019s Task] by Adorno\u2019s colleague Walter Benjamin, written as a preface to his German translation of Baudelaire\u2019s <em>Tableaux parisiens<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">Just as the expressions of life are most intimately connected with the living, without meaning anything to it, so the translation issues forth out of the original. Though not from its life [<em>Leben<\/em>] so much as from its \u2018survival\u2019 [<em>\u2018\u00dcberleben\u2019<\/em>].<a href=\"#fn18\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref18\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>18<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Benjamin\u2019s translation theory is premised on the \u201clife\u201d of a work or text\u2014that is, when \u201clife is attributed to everything that has a history, and not to that which is only a stage setting for history.\u201d<a href=\"#fn19\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref19\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>19<\/sup><\/a> This infamous pair of terms (<em>Leben<\/em>; <em>\u00dcberleben<\/em>) affords a certain analogy with the figure of Petrushka as a puppet brought to life, one who is killed yet lives on. As for the \u201clife\u201d of the work, Benjamin\u2019s materialist view of translation as a \u201cform\u201d or \u201cmode,\u201d<a href=\"#fn20\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref20\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>20<\/sup><\/a> rejecting the more commonly held view of translation as the utilitarian transmission of content for a receiver, accords with the various transmutations of a multimedia ballet work. Here Benjamin\u2019s reputation as one of the first serious theorists of modern mass media is justified, as his notion of translation as a \u201cform\u201d can be read as pre-empting Marshall McLuhan\u2019s widely quoted (and often misunderstood) slogan \u201cthe medium is the message.\u201d<a href=\"#fn21\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref21\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>21<\/sup><\/a> Finally, as already suggested in the introduction, the present chapter is not simply a \u201creception history\u201d of <em>Petrushka<\/em>, which as a methodology is at least nominally invested in the listeners\u2019 or readers\u2019 response, but rather an inquiry into what Benjamin called a work\u2019s \u201ctranslatability\u201d (\u201c\u00dcbersetzbarkeit\u201d), the virtual potentiality in a work for translation.<a href=\"#fn22\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref22\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>22<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What does it mean, then, for a ballet score to be \u201ctranslated\u201d into a concert work, ostensibly without theater or choreography? Such an arrangement or mode of performance is not merely the stripping away of the work\u2019s \u201cexternal\u201d elements, as if revealing its purely musical essence. Nor does it simply exchange one medium equivalently for another while preserving the narrative content. It invariably entails a change of media (e.g. solo piano instead of full orchestra; concert hall instead of theater; etc.) but one in which the narrative \u201ccontent\u201d (or \u201cmessage\u201d in McLuhan\u2019s sense) is subject to a dialectic of forgetting and recollection.<\/p>\n<p>The phenomenon of Stravinsky\u2019s 1909-13 ballet scores in concert involved either concert presentation of the entire score or a selection of scenes from the larger work. In this respect, it recalls the nineteenth-century practice whereby popular numbers were extracted from operas and ballets for domestic consumption as piano pieces, or presented in concert in the form of \u201chighlights.\u201d Using Benjamin\u2019s <em>Passagen-Werk<\/em> (<em>The Arcades Project<\/em>) as a critical touchstone,<a href=\"#fn23\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref23\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>23<\/sup><\/a> Stephanie Schroedter has investigated the material cultures and psychological spaces of ballet and opera arrangements and the ways in which the theatrical and choreographic elements of an opera or ballet took up residence in imaginary spaces.<a href=\"#fn24\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref24\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>24<\/sup><\/a> The difference in this case reflects the peculiar nature of Stravinsky\u2019s piano transcriptions of his 1909-13 ballet scores. What is of concern here is less the imagination or subjectivity of the listener than the ways in which choreographic movement or narrative elements \u201csurvive\u201d in concert performance.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"3\">Choreographed for Piano and Two Hands<\/h4>\n<p>The dynamic relationship between solo pianist and orchestral collective lay at the heart of Stravinsky\u2019s initial idea of a <em>Konzertst\u00fcck<\/em> and remained no less central to the final ballet. It is therefore fitting that Stravinsky about ten years later would compose a virtuosic transcription for solo piano based on <em>Petrushka<\/em>, as if to return the work to its roots: namely the <em>Three Movements from Petrushka<\/em> (1922), dedicated to Artur Rubinstein who originally commissioned it (see Table\u00a01). The remainder of this chapter focuses on a \u201cmediated\u201d interpretation of Stravinsky\u2019s <em>Three Movements<\/em>: Alexis Weissenberg\u2019s performance filmed for Swedish television in 1965, directed by \u00c5ke Falck.<a href=\"#fn25\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref25\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>25<\/sup><\/a> Shot over ten days in January 1965, Stockholm, the short film has been credited as single-handedly reviving Weissenberg\u2019s career, and if the film is already known to academics and to a broader audience, it is probably in this context.<a href=\"#fn26\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref26\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>26<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the purposes of Falck\u2019s film, Weissenberg \u201cperformed\u201d the work on a mute piano in synchrony with his own audio recording of the work, the silent instrument having been custom-made for the production. In a sense, then, Weissen\u00adberg mimes <em>Petrush\u00adka<\/em>. To be more precise, he mimes his own recording. The latter observation may be interpreted in at least two ways. Firstly, the film can be understood as a kind of choreography, for while Weissenberg\u2019s physical movements were not artistically created in themselves, there was a profoundly mimetic element to his \u201cperformance\u201d where the function of sound production is no longer important. In a subsequent interview on the film, Weissenberg felt that in Falck\u2019s film Stravinsky\u2019s <em>Three Movements<\/em> had been \u201cchoreographed for piano and [two] hands,\u201d and the choice of terminology is suggestive, albeit lacking the expertise of a dance scholar.<a href=\"#fn27\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref27\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>27<\/sup><\/a> Secondly, the \u201cplayback\u201d recording process reproduces something of the social dynamic of Petrushka himself, the puppet who is brought spectacularly to life by the Old Magician and dances the \u201cDanse russe\u201d under his spell. Weissenberg\u2019s performance for the camera encases the \u201cdead\u201d soul of a fixed soundtrack within a living body, creating a semblance of life for it, an illusion of \u201cpresence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The use of playback for filmed \u201cperformances\u201d of classical works is not unheard of but remains the exception rather than the rule, at least in the classical music recording industry. No less than Herbert von Karajan had the disgruntled players of the Berlin Philharmonic mime to playback for the filming of the canonical works for television in the 1960s and 1970s.<a href=\"#fn28\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref28\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>28<\/sup><\/a> In a different context, Ben Winters has examined the production of the \u201creality\u201d of classical concert music performance in the medium of screen fiction, which includes examples of musically inexperienced actors\u2019 miming to prerecorded tracks.<a href=\"#fn29\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref29\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>29<\/sup><\/a> Such practices are in a sense an equivalent to \u201clip-synching\u201d: \u201chand-synching\u201d or \u201cfinger-synching\u201d in this case, not to mention other physical gestures and expressions that aid in the simulation. The idea of mimesis comes to the fore\u2014especially in the case of a work adapted from <em>Petrushka<\/em>, a ballet about a magically animated puppet that is a mute object of violence to the same degree that his \u201clife\u201d is inherently and ineluctably mimetic.<\/p>\n<p>The seeming paradox of a \u201cpurely musical\u201d work rendered and mediated by means of complex technological and choreographic operations lends irony to anti-theatrical platitudes about concert performance in general. The following assessment of Weissenberg\u2019s artistry is a case in point:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"tsquotation\">Alexis Weissenberg\u2019s spectacular technique and individual style have made a lasting impression on the art of twentieth-century piano playing. Some of his recordings of the Russian repertoire especially have set a benchmark and are often cited as top recommendations in this field. On stage he has a commanding presence, <em>although he never uses theatrical or other non-musical gestures to deliver his message<\/em>.<a href=\"#fn30\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref30\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>30<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The disparagement of \u201ctheatrical or other non-musical gestures\u201d only raises further questions, while the double negative formulation (\u201che <em>never<\/em> uses [\u2026] <em>non-musical<\/em> gestures\u201d) amounts to a deceptive tautology, as if to say that what counts as a \u201cmusical\u201d or a \u201cnon-musical\u201d gesture were natural and self-evident. As I shall consider briefly in more detail, Falck\u2019s film effectively collapses the distinction between the \u201ctheatrical\u201d and the \u201cpurely musical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Falck\u2019s film, choreographic movement is reinscribed into the work not only through the recording process (the performer\u2019s miming to playback) but also via the cinematic form, aesthetic and style, all of which is realized with an ostentatious bravura that seems to rival the sheer virtuosity of the Stravinsky piano work itself. Falck\u2019s film is shot in stylish black and white, and indeed the extreme use of light and shade lends it a neo-expressionist flair epitomized by Falck\u2019s fellow countryman Ingmar Bergman and characteristic of 1950s and 1960s realist European arthouse cinema more broadly. Falck\u2019s own 1964 feature film, <em>Br\u00f6llopsbesv\u00e4r<\/em> (<em>Swedish Wedding Night<\/em>), was shot in black and white using a disorientating mixture of realist, surrealist and expressionist stylistic tropes.<a href=\"#fn31\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref31\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>31<\/sup><\/a> His <em>Petrushka<\/em> film of the following year contains a wide range of similarly inventive images, shots and camera angles: Weissenberg\u2019s hands in close-up from every conceivable angle; his face in close-up, again from various angles; wide shots from in front and from behind; shots that begin in a close-up of the hands and then zoom out; overhead shots following the movement of the hands across the keyboard; tracking shots moving around the piano from one end to the other; shots of the piano\u2019s interior showing the detail of the hammers; mirror images; and Weissenberg in dramatic, expressionist and sometimes warped silhouette. It may be noted here that every stylistic and technical feature in the cinematography, editing, and direction is coordinated, to a greater or lesser extent, with a structural event or section in the music.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Three videostills show sheet music titled \u201cTrois Mouvements de P\u00e9trouchka\u201d and a pianist playing.\" width=\"1295\" height=\"2560\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6369\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-scaled.jpg 1295w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-152x300.jpg 152w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-518x1024.jpg 518w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-76x150.jpg 76w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-768x1518.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-777x1536.jpg 777w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-1036x2048.jpg 1036w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-37x74.jpg 37w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-248x491.jpg 248w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-273x540.jpg 273w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-111x220.jpg 111w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-167x330.jpg 167w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-850x1680.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-123x244.jpg 123w, https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/04_Coleman_Fig_01_a-c-132x260.jpg 132w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1295px) 100vw, 1295px\" \/><br \/>\n<span class=\"caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1a\u2013c<\/strong> Video still from Falck (dir.) Three Movements from Petrushka (Stockhom, 1965). a) movement 1 \u201cDanse russe,\u201d 0 mins. 26 s.; b) movement 2 \u201cChez P\u00e9trouchka,\u201d 2 mins. 9 s.; c) movement 3 \u201cLa semaine grasse,\u201d 7 mins. 43 s. \u00a9\u00a0Ideale Audience International<\/span><\/p>\n<p>While the film seems to underline the \u201cchoreographic\u201d nature of the piano work as something inherent to it rather than imposed from without, the film constantly foregrounds the mediation of the work and the process of recording it. Periodically throughout the film, the camera closes in on single pages from the printed score\u2014once in each of the three movements, to be precise (see figures\u00a01a\u2013c). The physical appearance of the score thus functions as a kind of framing device: the first page appears immediately before the performance starts, and the film ends with a close-up image of the final chord in the score. Movement\u00a02 neither begins nor ends with an image of the score; rather, the score is shown open at the appropriate page in the middle of the movement, occupying half of the camera frame in the foreground with the pianist visible in the background. After a few seconds, the score is shakily withdrawn to the right-hand side of the screen.<\/p>\n<p>The score seems to serve a double function in Falck\u2019s film. On the one hand, it shows the score to be already a mediation of the work. As such it flaunts the challenge it poses: that of bringing to life, in the most virtuosic and inventive ways, the dead letter of the musical text. On the other, images of the score project its critical authority and Weissenberg\u2019s sober\u2014indeed technically flawless\u2014fidelity to the musical text.<\/p>\n<p>The references to technology and process seem equally designed to create the illusion of seamless, synchronic integration and \u201cpresence.\u201d There is a wide shot in the third movement (\u201cLa semaine grasse,\u201d starting at 3\u00a0mins. 40\u00a0s.) taken from a high vantage point that shows a microphone hanging from a stand and the piano in the background. While the image seems to draw attention to the technical process of recording and mediation, it also sustains the illusion that the audio had been recorded live in the studio and that the sound and image have an identical source in Weissenberg\u2019s \u201cperformance\u201d in the TV studio.<\/p>\n<p>Weissenberg\u2019s comment that the film was \u201cchoreographed for piano and [two] hands\u201d is borne out above all in the close-up shots of his hands displaying the sheer physical demands of the work: the hands repeatedly spanning large intervals in a fraction of a second, sometimes crossing over one another, and especially the \u201cdiabolical cascades of <em>arpeggi<\/em>\u201d (to recall Stravinsky\u2019s own description of his germinal <em>Konzertst\u00fcck<\/em>) preserved in the second movement of the transcription (\u201cChez P\u00e9trouchka\u201d).<a href=\"#fn32\" class=\"footnote-ref\" id=\"fnref32\" role=\"doc-noteref\"><sup>32<\/sup><\/a> In these close-up shots, the movement of Weissenberg\u2019s hands resembles that of dancing bodies. For instance, in the first movement (\u201cDanse russe\u201d), the left hand has a repeating pattern of staccato chords, and the close-up on Weissenberg\u2019s hand causes it to resemble the same dance performed by the three puppets in Fokine\u2019s original choreography. The cameras\u2019 movements in relation to the piano and the performer elicits choreographic features that are in some sense shown to be always already in the work, hence the notion of \u201ctranslatability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The case study of Falck\u2019s film is a timely reminder of the various ways in which a multimedia work is in turn mediated by its own history, by its transformations and translations, and by its wider critical discourse. In blurring the distinction between a musico-theatrical work (such as ballet) and a \u201cpurely musical\u201d performance or arrangement of the score, the film deconstructs the notion of the \u201cpurely musical\u201d for Stravinsky\u2019s <em>Three Movements<\/em> for piano as well as for his 1909-13 ballet scores in general. Nonetheless, the case of <em>Petrushka<\/em> helps to make this point more emphatically than almost any other musical work in the modernist canon: the figure of the suffering puppet is an all-too-prescient image of the diremptions of the performer-subject not only in modernism but in the contemporary landscapes of virtual and digital media\u2014whether it be the process of \u201chand-synching\u201d to a pre-existing track or that of bringing to life an inert score. Falck\u2019s remarkable 1965 film of Weissenberg\u2019s playing may serve as both a benchmark for the creative filming of musical performance today and a cautionary tale about the technical challenges of such a process and the implications of overcoming them.<\/p>\n<section id=\"footnotes\" class=\"footnotes footnotes-end-of-document\" role=\"doc-endnotes\">\n<hr \/>\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn1\">\n<p>A condensed version of this chapter was presented at the Annual Conference of the School of Performing Arts, University of Malta, 23-25 March 2022 (conference theme: \u201cMediating Performance: Technologies, Communities, Spaces\u201d), and I am grateful to the participants in the session for their feedback. I also want to thank Carlo Cenciarelli and Michael Laus for helpful conversations on the topic.<a href=\"#fnref1\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn2\">\n<p>Christoph Flamm, \u201c<em>Petrushka<\/em>,\u201d in <em>The Cambridge Stravinsky Encyclopedia<\/em> [here\u00adafter <em>TCSE<\/em>] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 322.<a href=\"#fnref2\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn3\">\n<p>Terminologically, it may be more apt to speak of \u201cexclusively musical\u201d rather than \u201cpurely musical,\u201d since the process is tantamount to the <em>exclusion<\/em> of the other arts, rather than the <em>unveiling<\/em> of a purely musical core. However, this chapter uses the more familiar term to allow it to intervene in an existing discourse.<a href=\"#fnref3\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn4\">\n<p>John Deathridge, \u201cPostmortem on Isolde,\u201d in John Deathridge, <em>Wagner Beyond Good and Evil<\/em> (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008), 133-55. The chapter is a revised version of the previously published article: \u201cPost-mortem on Isolde,\u201d in <em>New German Critique<\/em> 69, Special Issue devoted to Richard Wagner, ed. David J. Levin (Autumn, 1996): 99-126. See also Catherine Cl\u00e9ment, <em>Opera, or the Undoing of Women<\/em>, trans. Betsy Wing, foreword by Susan McClary (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988); originally published as <em>L\u2019Op\u00e9ra, ou la d\u00e9faite des femmes<\/em> (Paris: B. Grasset, 1979).<a href=\"#fnref4\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn5\">\n<p>Deathridge, \u201cPostmortem on Isolde,\u201d 141-42.<a href=\"#fnref5\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn6\">\n<p>Ibid., 155.<a href=\"#fnref6\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn7\">\n<p>Arved Ashby, <em>Absolute Music, Mechanical Reproduction<\/em> (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010).<a href=\"#fnref7\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn8\">\n<p>Based on two existing worklists or catalogues: Daniel Jaff\u00e9, \u201cAppendix 1: Mus\u00adical Works,\u201d in <em>TCSE<\/em>, eds. Edward Campbell and Peter O\u2019Hagan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 506-35; and Helmut Kirchmeyer, \u201cK012 <em>Petrushka,<\/em>\u201d <em>K Catalog: Annotated Catalog of Works and Work Editions of Igor Strawinsky<\/em> <em>till 1971<\/em>, June 2020, accessed 5 February 2022, <a href=\"about:blank\">http:\/\/www.kcatalog.org\/index.php\/browse-chapters\/kcatalog\/179-k012-petrushka<\/a>.<a href=\"#fnref8\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn9\">\n<p>See Stephen Walsh, <em>Stravinsky: A Creative Spring: Russia and France, 1882<\/em>&#8211;<em>1934<\/em> (London: Jonathan Cape, 2000), 164-5.<a href=\"#fnref9\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn10\">\n<p>Igor Stravinsky, <em>Chronicle of My Life<\/em>, translated from the French (London: Victor Gollancz, 1936), 56.<a href=\"#fnref10\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn11\">\n<p>Ibid.<a href=\"#fnref11\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn12\">\n<p>Florent Fels, \u201cUn entretien avec Igor Strawinsky \u00e0 propos de l\u2019enregistrement au phonographe de \u2018Petrouchka\u2019 [<em>sic<\/em>],\u201d in <em>Nouvelles litt\u00e9raires<\/em>, 8 December 1928: 11: \u201cDans mon id\u00e9e primitive, je voyais un homme en frac, portant les cheveux longs: le musicien ou le po\u00e8te de la tradition romantique. Il se pla\u00e7ait au piano et roulait sur le clavier des objets h\u00e9t\u00e9roclites tandis que l\u2019orchestre \u00e9clatait en protestations v\u00e9h\u00e9ments, en coups de poing sonores.\u201d Translation slightly modified from Richard Taruskin, <em>Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works Through<\/em> Mavra, vol. 1 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1996), 664.<a href=\"#fnref12\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn13\">\n<p>Flamm, \u201c<em>Petrushka<\/em>,\u201d in <em>TCSE<\/em>, 319.<a href=\"#fnref13\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn14\">\n<p>Jonathan Dunsby, <em>Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire<\/em>, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 2.<a href=\"#fnref14\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn15\">\n<p>Stravinsky later noted that the offensive gesture is directed not at the Old Magician but at the audience. Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft, <em>Memories and Commentaries<\/em> (London: Faber and Faber, 1960), 34.<a href=\"#fnref15\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn16\">\n<p>Theodor W. Adorno, <em>Philosophy of New Music<\/em>, trans., ed., and with an in\u00adtro\u00adduction by Robert Hullot-Kentor (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006), 109. German original: \u201cPierrot und Petruschka, wie auch der Strauss\u00adische Eulenspiegel, der ein paarmal so vernehmlich in Strawinskys Bal\u00adlett anklingt, \u00fcberleben der eigenen Untergang.\u201d Theodor W. Adorno, G<em>esam\u00admelte Schriften: Philosophie der neuen Musik<\/em>, vol. 12, ed. Rolf Tiedemann (Frank\u00adfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1975), 133. Stravinsky\u2019s and Schoenberg\u2019s mutual regard for each other\u2019s work (for <em>Pierrot lunaire<\/em> and for <em>Petrushka<\/em>, respectively) is summarized by Stephen Walsh, chapter 4: \u201cPetrushka meets Pierrot,\u201d <em>Igor Strav\u00adinsky: A Creative Spring<\/em>, 186-200, especially 189-90.<a href=\"#fnref16\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn17\">\n<p>Hullot-Kentor\u2019s English translation (mis)reads \u201cPierrot und Petruschka\u201d as the names of the works, not of the protagonists.<a href=\"#fnref17\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn18\">\n<p>Caroline Disler, \u201cBenjamin\u2019s \u2018Afterlife\u2019: A Productive (?) Mistranslation in Memoriam Daniel Simeoni,\u201d in <em>Traduction, terminologie, r\u00e9daction<\/em> [<em>TTR<\/em>] 24, no. 1 (2011): 183-221, 185. Otherwise I have relied on the English translation of Benjamin\u2019s essay by Steven Rendall, \u201cThe Translator\u2019s Task, Walter Benjamin,\u201d in <em>TTR<\/em> 10, no. 2 (1997): 151-65. German original: \u201cSo wie die \u00c4u\u00dferungen des Lebens innigst mit dem Lebendigen zusammenh\u00e4ngen, ohne ihm etwas zu bedeuten, geht die \u00dcbersetzung aus dem Original hervor. Zwar nicht aus seinem Leben so sehr denn aus seinem \u2018\u00dcberleben\u2019.\u201d Walter Benjamin, \u201cDie Aufgabe des \u00dcbersetzers,\u201d in Walter Benjamin, <em>Gesammelte Schriften<\/em>, Vol. 4, ed. Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schweppenh\u00e4user (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985), 10.<a href=\"#fnref18\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn19\">\n<p>\u201cVielmehr nur wenn allem demjenigen, wovon es Geschichte gibt und was nicht allein ihr Schauplatz ist, Leben zuerkannt wird, kommt dessen Begriff zu seinem Recht.\u201d Benjamin, \u201cDie Aufgabe des \u00dcbersetzers,\u201d 11. Rendall, \u201cThe Translator\u2019s Task,\u201d in <em>TTR<\/em> 10, 153.<a href=\"#fnref19\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn20\">\n<p>\u201cTranslation is a mode [<em>eine Form<\/em>];\u201d Benjamin, \u201cDie Aufgabe des \u00dcbersetzers,\u201d 9; Rendall, \u201cThe Translator\u2019s Task,\u201d in <em>TTR<\/em> 10, 152.<a href=\"#fnref20\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn21\">\n<p>Marshall McLuhan, <em>Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man<\/em> (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2001, first published 1964), 7ff.<a href=\"#fnref21\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn22\">\n<p>Benjamin, \u201cDie Aufgabe des \u00dcbersetzers,\u201d 9ff.; Rendall, \u201cThe Translator\u2019s Task,\u201d in <em>TTR<\/em> 10, 152ff. See also Samuel Weber, <em>Benjamin\u2019s -abilities<\/em> (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).<a href=\"#fnref22\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn23\">\n<p>Walter Benjamin, <em>Gesammelte Schriften: Das Passagen-Werk<\/em>, vol. 5, ed. Rolf Tiedemann (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1982); translated into English by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, <em>The Arcades Project<\/em> (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002).<a href=\"#fnref23\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn24\">\n<p>Stephanie Schroedter, <em>Paris qui danse. Bewegungs- und Klangr\u00e4ume einer Gro\u00dfstadt der Moderne<\/em> (W\u00fcrzburg: K\u00f6nigshausen\u00a0&amp; Neumann, 2018).<a href=\"#fnref24\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn25\">\n<p>\u00c5ke Falck (dir.), <em>Three Movements from Petrushka<\/em>, Alexis Weissenberg (piano), filmed for Sveriges Television (SVT), co-produced by MusicaGlotz (Stockholm, 1965); reissued on DVD: <em>Classic Archive<sup>TM<\/sup>: Alexis Weissenberg<\/em> (Ideale Audience International, 2008), item number 3078048, UPC number 899132000626. Falck would go on to direct Weissenberg as the soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic in a 1967 film of Tchaikovsky\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 1 conducted by Herbert von Karajan.<a href=\"#fnref25\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn26\">\n<p>In Weissenberg\u2019s obituary in the UK newspaper <em>The Times<\/em>, the author made the astonishing claim that the film had been directed by Ingmar Bergman. Author anonymous, \u201cAlexis Weissenberg\u201d [obituary], <em>The Times<\/em> (24<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0January 2012), accessed 17 January 2022, <a href=\"about:blank\">https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/alexis-weissenberg-nfdqgfzcvhc<\/a>. Had Bergman been attached to the film in any way, it would surely have attracted more attention than it has to date.<a href=\"#fnref26\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn27\">\n<p>\u201c[\u2026] chor\u00e9graphi\u00e9 pour un piano et des mains.\u201d \u201cAlexis Weissenberg talks about <em>Petrushka<\/em>,\u201d bonus material in the 2008 DVD. Interviewer: Christian Labrande. Director: Philippe Truffault. Quotation from interview transcribed and translated by the present author.<a href=\"#fnref27\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn28\">\n<p>See: Georg W\u00fcbbolt and Peter Gelb (dir.), <em>Herbert von Karajan: Maestro for the Screen<\/em> [DVD] (Berlin: Unitel Classica, C Major Entertainment GmbH, 2016); and Ram\u00f3n Sanju\u00e1n M\u00ednguez, \u201cEl Controvertido Legado F\u00edlmico de Herbert von Karajan: Una Necesaria Revisi\u00f3n de los Desheredados,\u201d in <em>Revista de Musicolog\u00eda<\/em> 41, no. 1 (January\u2013June, 2018): 307-30.<a href=\"#fnref28\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn29\">\n<p>Ben Winters, <em>Music, Performance, and the Realities of Film: Shared Concert Experiences in Screen Fiction<\/em> (New York: Routledge, 2014).<a href=\"#fnref29\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn30\">\n<p>Anonymous description of compilation film directed by Pierre-Martin Juban, 2008, released on the online platform MediciTV, accessed 8 January 2022, <a href=\"about:blank\">https:\/\/www.medici.tv\/en\/concerts\/alexis-weissenberg\/<\/a>, emphasis added.<a href=\"#fnref30\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn31\">\n<p>I am grateful to Gerard Corvin for referring me to a copy of the film.<a href=\"#fnref31\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"fn32\">\n<p>The bitonal scales and arpeggios between the two hands (including the so-called \u201cPetrushka chord\u201d) remain one of the technically easier passages of the entire piece for a pianist, even if to the untrained ear they sound the most impressive.<a href=\"#fnref32\" class=\"footnote-back\" role=\"doc-backlink\">\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeremy Coleman 1 &nbsp; First performed in Paris, 1911, the \u201cburlesque\u201d ballet Petrushka stands today as a central work of the modernist canon and an unruly assemblage of artistic media that eludes any attempt to define it simply in terms of a single \u201cauthor\u201d or as a work independent of its original production. In this &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-schroedter-ed-music-and-motion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Petrushka\u2019s Survival &#8211; mdwPress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Petrushka\u2019s Survival &#8211; mdwPress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jeremy Coleman 1 &nbsp; First performed in Paris, 1911, the \u201cburlesque\u201d ballet Petrushka stands today as a central work of the modernist canon and an unruly assemblage of artistic media that eludes any attempt to define it simply in terms of a single \u201cauthor\u201d or as a work independent of its original production. In this &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mdwPress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T13:27:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T10:04:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jana Diewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jana Diewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"29 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jana Diewald\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/718d5159661e1c0dbf47804f556bf0ba\"},\"headline\":\"Petrushka\u2019s Survival\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-12T13:27:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T10:04:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/\"},\"wordCount\":5878,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Schroedter (ed.): Music and Motion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/\",\"name\":\"Petrushka\u2019s Survival &#8211; mdwPress\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-12T13:27:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T10:04:20+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Startseite\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Petrushka\u2019s Survival\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/\",\"name\":\"mdwPress\",\"description\":\"The Open Access University Press at the mdw\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"mdwPress\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mdwpress-logo-schwarz.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mdwpress-logo-schwarz.svg\",\"width\":\"1024\",\"height\":\"1024\",\"caption\":\"mdwPress\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/718d5159661e1c0dbf47804f556bf0ba\",\"name\":\"Jana Diewald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4b75bccf744c20e6f1ce58da4b60fff9900c5fb1be09774b839b8b078ca748c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4b75bccf744c20e6f1ce58da4b60fff9900c5fb1be09774b839b8b078ca748c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jana Diewald\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/author\/diewald\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Petrushka\u2019s Survival &#8211; mdwPress","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Petrushka\u2019s Survival &#8211; mdwPress","og_description":"Jeremy Coleman 1 &nbsp; First performed in Paris, 1911, the \u201cburlesque\u201d ballet Petrushka stands today as a central work of the modernist canon and an unruly assemblage of artistic media that eludes any attempt to define it simply in terms of a single \u201cauthor\u201d or as a work independent of its original production. In this &hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/","og_site_name":"mdwPress","article_published_time":"2026-02-12T13:27:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-24T10:04:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Jana Diewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jana Diewald","Est. reading time":"29 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/"},"author":{"name":"Jana Diewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/718d5159661e1c0dbf47804f556bf0ba"},"headline":"Petrushka\u2019s Survival","datePublished":"2026-02-12T13:27:09+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T10:04:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/"},"wordCount":5878,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png","articleSection":["Schroedter (ed.): Music and Motion"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/","name":"Petrushka\u2019s Survival &#8211; mdwPress","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png","datePublished":"2026-02-12T13:27:09+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T10:04:20+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/orcid.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/mdwp004-006\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Startseite","item":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Petrushka\u2019s Survival"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/","name":"mdwPress","description":"The Open Access University Press at the mdw","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#organization","name":"mdwPress","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mdwpress-logo-schwarz.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/mdwpress-logo-schwarz.svg","width":"1024","height":"1024","caption":"mdwPress"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/718d5159661e1c0dbf47804f556bf0ba","name":"Jana Diewald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4b75bccf744c20e6f1ce58da4b60fff9900c5fb1be09774b839b8b078ca748c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a4b75bccf744c20e6f1ce58da4b60fff9900c5fb1be09774b839b8b078ca748c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jana Diewald"},"url":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/author\/diewald\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6355"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7163,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6355\/revisions\/7163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/mdwpress\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}