Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty / Glazunov: The Seasons

Description

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)The Sleeping Beauty Introduction - Lilac Fairy Pas d'action (Adagio) Pas de caractere (Puss-In-Boots) Panorama WaltzThe second of Tchaikovsky's full lengthballets, The Sleeping Beauty, was completed in 1889 and first performed in St.Petersburg in January the following year, when Carlotta Brianza danced the roleof Princess Aurora, with Pavel Gerdt as the Prince, Cecchetti as Carabosse andthe choreographer Marius Petipa's daughter Maria as the Lilac Fairy. Theinitial response to the work was cool, damned by the faint praise of the Tsar,who remarked that it was very nice. The ballet was only gradually to winfavour.The commission for The Sleeping Beautyhad come from Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Russian Imperial Theatres, whodesigned the costumes for the ballet and with Petipa had adapted the story fromthe fairy-tales of Charles Perrault. The Introduction already offers a glimpseof what is to come, a suggestion that there will be difficulties to surmountbefore Prince marries Princess and both live happily ever after. The infantPrincess is to be christened, and the fairies bring their gifts, with theuninvited and spiteful Carabosse promising that the Princess will prick herfinger and sleep for ever. The Lilac Fairy offers in mitigation a reduction ofsentence to a sleep of a hundred years.The Pas d'action (Rose Adagio) isdanced by the Princess now old enough to choose one of her princely suitors asa husband. The celebrations are to be interrupted the revenge of Carabosse,who, disguised as an old woman, offers the present of a spindle, on which thePrincess pricks her finger.As we know, Princess Aurore is eventuallyto wake once more, when the handsome prince breaks the spell. At her wedding thereis an opportunity for varied entertainment, the divertissement including acharacter dance for Puss-in-Boots and other creatures from the world ofPerrault. Before this we have seen the enchanted forest (Panorama) throughwhich the Prince must make his way and have heard the famous Sleeping BeautyWaltz of the first act, before the tragedy and its happy reversal.Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865- 1936) The Seasons Opus 67 Scene 1 Winter Introduction - Four Variations (Frost, Ice, Hail & Snow) and Coda Scene 2 Spring Scene Scene 3 Summer Scene - Waltz of the Cornflowers &Poppies - Barcarolle - Variation and Coda Scene 4 Autumn Bacchanale - Appearance of the Seasons(Winter, Spring, Bacchanalian Dance, Summer) - Scene and ApotheosisAlexander Konstantinovich Glazunov hasnot fared well at the hands of later critics, although in his own time heenjoyed considerable success. In 1905 he became Director of the St. PetersburgConservatory and was to retain that position through all the difficulties ofthe next 25 years, before leaving Russia to spend his final years in Paris. Acomposer of great facility, with a phenomenal musical memory, he worked closelywith Rimsky-Korsakov, assisting him in that debt of honour he fulfilled inediting