Jeu de cartes

Program notes

About the Work

Jeu de cartes (‘The Card Game’) is one of the wittiest products of Stravinsky’s neoclassical period, a ballet ‘in three deals’ from 1936, in which the dancers are playing cards in a game of poker. Across three ‘deals,’ hands are played out on the green baize table, and the action is repeatedly thrown into chaos by the perfidious Joker, who fancies himself invincible because he can become any card he likes, until he is finally defeated by a royal flush. It was choreographed by George Balanchine for the American Ballet and premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1937, with Stravinsky conducting.

The music is sparkling, brilliant and full of mischief. In the neoclassical manner, Stravinsky writes crisp, dancing music of great rhythmic vitality and clarity, and he laces it with sly musical jokes, quoting and parodying other composers (snatches of Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Johann Strauss waltzes, even Ravel and Delibes) as the Joker shuffles the musical deck. It is Stravinsky at his most playful and urbane: a glittering, fast-moving entertainment that nonetheless shows his peerless craftsmanship in every bar.

What to Listen For

Listen for the recurring ‘shuffling’ fanfare, a strutting little march that opens the ballet and announces the start of each new ‘deal,’ like the cards being dealt afresh. Around it, Stravinsky spins crisp, brilliant, constantly changing music full of rhythmic snap and bright orchestral colour.

Half the fun is catching the musical jokes: listen for sudden quotations and parodies of other composers’ music (a flash of Rossini, a whiff of a Strauss waltz), which Stravinsky tosses in with a wink as the Joker plays his tricks. The music is fast, witty and unsentimental, full of unexpected turns and deadpan humour. You don’t need to follow the card-game plot in detail; simply enjoy the dazzling craftsmanship, the rhythmic energy, and the sly, knowing wit of Stravinsky the great musical gamesman.