BBC Music Magazine
April 2025
Orchestral Choice

Isabel Leonard (mezzo-soprano), Paul Appleby (tenor), Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Gustavo Gimeno

Stravinsky: Divertimento (symphonic suite from Le Baiser de la Fée)
Igor Stravinsky, Kelly-Marie Murphy: Curiosity, Genius, and the Search For Petula Clark
Stravinsky: Pulcinella


These two ballets reveal a specific facet of Stravinsky’s genius, his skill in pastiche. Having used music from eighteenth-century Naples for Pulcinella, he turned to Tchaikovsky for Le Baiser de la fée.

On both occasions, he succeeded in transforming the exercise of homage into a highly personal work.

Stravinsky had a special artistic affinity with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which amply repays the debt with this new recording.