| Royal Classics |  |
| Disc No: ROY6460 | |
| Price: Sek. 51 |
Tchaikovsky's three big ballets are represented in this generous selection. As it happens The Nutcracker was the last, being presented in Leningrad in 1892 as part of a double bill with Tchaikovsky's opera Yolanta. Based distantly upon an E T Hoffmann story, The Nutcracker was first aired in the form of the present suite, the full ballet - almost four times the length - following it by about nine months. In a recent visit to France the composer had discovered a newly-invented instrument, the celesta, and was anxious to be the first Russian to write for it. Perhaps this is why he previewed the ballet with the suite. To capture the delicate nature of the Sugar Plum Fairy, no better instrument could be imagined. Swan Lake was Tchaikovsky's first ballet. It began life as a private entertainment for his sister's children in 1871 and was greatly expanded for the first public showing six years later That premiere was entrusted to a whole group of designers and choreographers, not one of whom really knew what he was doing, and the conductor, Stepan Ryabov was, according to the composer's brother, 'a semi-amateur who had never before seen such a complicated score'. Despite this, and later interferences with the music by envious rivals, Tchaikovsky's music survived through its sheer beauty. The Sleeping Beauty enjoyed much more careful preparation when it first appeared in 1889, having been in the hands of one man, Vsevolozhsky, director of the Imperial Theatres, who wrote the story-line and designed all the consumes. With so reliable a partner Tchaikovsky worked with great confidence, and almost as soon as the success of the production was assured he approached his publisher with the idea of making a concert suite out of the long score. The result is this enticing sequence of movements. Robert Dearling. Discontinued |
| Name: Tchaikovsky - Suites | |
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| Order 1 CD In stock |
| Composer | Opus | Produced | Music | Key | Performer |
| Tchaikovsky, Peter | Op.20 | 1958 | Swan Lake - Suite | Philharmonia Orchestra - Wolfgang Sawallich | |
| Tchaikovsky, Peter | 1958 | Nutcracker - Suite | |||
| Tchaikovsky, Peter | Sleeping beauty - Suite | Philharmonia Orchestra - George Welldon |