In 1994, Brian Powell attended the Aspen Music Festival and witnessed someone perform an arrangement of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s classic “Pulcinella” on the cello. Powell, who was then studying bass at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, had a thought.
“That looks playable on bass,” Powell, now associate professor of double bass and string music education at the Frost School of Music, said to himself.
Powell’s sudden idea inspired a passion-driven quest that finally came to fruition more than three decades and many travails later. You could say the project developed in tandem with Powell’s own growth as a musician and educator. And the ultimate success of his “Pulcinella” project has expanded the repertoire and possibilities for his beloved double bass and increased its allure for students at the Frost School.
Stravinsky originally composed “Pulcinella” to accompany a 1920 ballet for Diaghilev’s legendary Ballet Russes. The music is well-known to bassists for its Vivo movement, a classic piece of repertoire frequently played during auditions. But no one had ever arranged the whole thing for double bass until Powell took a crack at it.
His initial attempt to arrange the work, however, came to naught because “Pulcinella” was beyond his ability to play as an undergraduate. He returned to the work about a decade later, while working on his doctorate at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. This time, Powell succeeded in finishing the arrangement and submitted it to leading classical music publisher Boosey & Hawkes, which owned the copyrights to Stravinsky’s music.
The company took seven years to say yes, the time it took them to get approval from Stravinsky’s estate. Finally, in 2020, “Igor Stravinsky: Suite Italienne for Double Bass and Piano (arr. Brian Powell)” was published.
By this time, Powell had joined the faculty at the Frost School. The next step was to record and release the music, for which Powell secured a Provost Research Grant in 2022 – only to suffer another major setback, a fracture of his left (and fingering) arm. At the time, Powell was unsure whether he would recover enough to perform the piece. While his arm did heal, it took over a year. Recording sessions finally took place in the fall of 2023.
At last, the 12-track album “Suite Italienne for Double Bass and Piano” was released on all the major streaming services in August of 2024, featuring accompaniment by Powell’s fellow Frost School faculty members Karen Lord-Powell on violin, Ross Harbaugh on cello, and Oleskii Ivanchenko on piano.
Since the album’s release, Powell has publicized it with more than 30 well-received videos of album tracks and interviews. It’s also been prominently featured on the Double Bass HQ podcast.
“My goal has always been to add Stravinsky to the double bass solo repertoire,” says Powell. “It’s been quite an ordeal, but I’m grateful to come back and play this piece. One of the things that was satisfying for me was that it made me grow as a bass player, to figure out new solutions to make it work on double bass.”
Powell believes the project has also expanded the Frost School’s profile.
“The thing I hope this will do for the school is lift our classical reputation,” says Dr. Powell. “We are making a significant contribution to classical music, which bassists and even people beyond bassists will realize when they hear someone playing this piece.”
