Tchaikovsky, Suite from Swan Lake

The most famous ballet in the world was a complete failure for its premiere, on March 4, 1876, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. The circumstances were manifold. Poor choreography, poor scenery and costumes, lousy direction, and numbers considered unattainable replaced by others to please the soloists, finally resulted in the staging of a disastrous production. But Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky did not fall into depression this time. He simply forgot about the ballet, although in 1882 the work returned to the stage with new choreography and some adjustments, which resulted in a better reception.

An attempted orchestral suite
That same year, learning that Léo Delibes had taken to converting his ballets into concert suites, Tchaikovsky asked his publisher, Piotr Jurgenson, to send him a copy of the score. The master was once again interested in the ill-fated ballet with the intention of extracting an orchestral suite from its music and, who knows, perhaps revising the entire work again. But none of this happened. Tchaikovsky died in 1893 without having sent Jurgenson the suite – let alone the revision of the ballet – although it is possible that he had sent one piece or another, but we cannot be sure.

Tchaikovsky in his last days
(1840 - 1893)

A "Jurgenson suite", opus 20a
The only certainty is that Jurgenson published in November 1900 a "suite" made up of six ballet numbers, as opus 20a. Since the authorship of its construction is not clear, the versions heard today of the orchestral suite of the ballet Swan Lake are varied. There are them with six numbers – the "original" –, with eight (adding a Spanish dance, or a Neapolitan, and a mazurka), and also with nine. As if that were not enough, the order in which they are presented is also up to the taste of the performers, or the conductor.

So, there is something for everyone in the Swan Lake Suites. The following version is from the Symphony Orchestra of a music school in Gdansk, Poland, conducted by Sylwia Anna Janiak.

00:26  Scene. Moderato

03:39  Waltz. Tempo di Valse

11:10  Swan Dance. Allegro moderato

12:50  Scene. Andante

19:35  Hungarian Dance. Czardas. Moderato assai.