3x7 – multiply 3 composers by 7 instruments: the maximum ensemble size (in various configurations) used on this programme full of shared references, symmetries and events stemming from the proximity of three musicians who all bore witness to and played an active role in the unique artistic world of début du siècle Paris.

Although the tour never took place, L’Histoire opened the way for a new concept in musical theatre, and as the Suite (1919) demonstrates, the seven parts, in pairs of high- and low-pitched instruments of each family (violin/double bass, clarinet/bassoon, cornet/trombone) plus percussion (for the devil’s sorcery), can even do without the narrator.

In 1921 Francis Poulenc and his mentor Erik Satie each contributed to a théâtre bouffe show with Le Gendarme incompris and Le Piège de Méduse, respectively.

These two works actively sought provocation and scandal, with incredibly surreal plots and nonsense scenarios. Poulenc used his incidental music as the basis for a four-section Suite for a seven-strong ‘small orchestra’.

Satie, meanwhile, reused his seven Toutes Petites Danses for piano, arranging them for the same seven-instrument ensemble as Poulenc. Satie’s Trois Valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté are strongly connected to Le Piège.

They are a merciless portrait of a highly refined dandy, easily recognisable as Ravel, who had recently written some waltzes (the Valses nobles et sentimentales) of his own. Poulenc’s Sonata for clarinet and bassoon takes full advantage of the timbral qualities of the two woodwind instruments (the same used by Stravinsky in L’Histoire) and fits perfectly into the climate that led to Cocteau’s rappel à l’ordre (‘return to order’) and the end of the Parisian avant-garde’s most revolutionary and experimental period.

Many years later Stravinsky, having emigrated to the USA, composed one of his most important works from his late period (having embraced serialism): the Septet. As well as a sophisticated piece of musical arithmetic and a work of exemplary compositional rigour, it also demonstrates masterful symmetry, not least in its new seven-instrument ensemble which ‘balances’ the piano between three strings and three wind instruments – a choice far removed from the scoring of its direct counterpart, L’Histoire – bringing the programme full circle.