This week on From the Vault we travel back to December of 1971, when Pacifica radio station WBAI paid tribute to one of the great composers of our time, Igor Stravinsky, who had died earlier that year in April. With a great body of work to choose from, including Firebird, Patrushka, and Rite of Spring, the WBAI Music Department chose Stravinsky's theatrical work L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale) from 1918 - a classic tale of the Devil tempting people at a crossroads in their lives.
The Soldier's Tale was performed live in front of the typical in studio audience on WBAI's Free Music Store on December 18, 1971. The cast includes Tim Jerome, narrator; Arthur Miller, a soldier; and Pat Shea as the Devil. Musicians include Jeanne Benjamin, violin; Richard Fredrickson, bass; Paul Gallo, clarinet; Charles Nussbaum, bassoon; James Stubbs, trumpet; Lawrence Benz, trombone; and Howard van Hyning, percussion. The orchestra is conducted by Henry Schuman.
From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project, funded in part by an award from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives and Records Administration, and past grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the American Archive funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, along with the generous support of Pacifica Radio Listeners. We also thank our partners and collaborators at the Pop-Up Archive, Amara, Other Minds Archives, George Blood Audio, and the California Audio Visual Preservation Project.
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