Familiar to concert audiences for Sheherazade, the
Capriccio espagnole, and The Flight of the Bumblebee,
during his lifetime Rimsky-Korsakov was known chiefly
through his operas. Between 1868 and 1905 he wrote no
fewer than 17 major works for the stage, a few of which
are remembered by their titles, at least--May Night,
The Barber of Baghdad, Mozart and Salieri, The Snow
Maiden. These operas rarely appear in Western theaters,
but the music from them is often so powerful and
coloristic that condu...(+)
Familiar to concert audiences for Sheherazade, the
Capriccio espagnole, and The Flight of the Bumblebee,
during his lifetime Rimsky-Korsakov was known chiefly
through his operas. Between 1868 and 1905 he wrote no
fewer than 17 major works for the stage, a few of which
are remembered by their titles, at least--May Night,
The Barber of Baghdad, Mozart and Salieri, The Snow
Maiden. These operas rarely appear in Western theaters,
but the music from them is often so powerful and
coloristic that conductors can hardly resist excerpting
them, if only to revel in the rich hues of this
composer's orchestral mastery.
Rimsky-Korsakov was first and foremost a pioneer of
orchestral sound. This found expression in his
Principles of Orchestration (published posthumously, in
1913), which is illustrated with more than 300 musical
examples from his own works and is still used as a
textbook in conservatories around the world. His
innovations in color, texture and sonority helped
inspire the experiments of Ravel, Stravinsky,
Shostakovich and others. But this mastery was not
confined to his orchestra scores, it runs through his
operas as well, which contain some of his finest
music.
The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) began its life as a
"springtime fairy-tale" by Alexander Orlovsky, the 1873
premiere of which featured 19 numbers of incidental
music by Tchaikovsky. Written in verse, the play lent
itself naturally to an operatic setting;
Rimsky-Korsakov's four-act opera with prologue was
first performed at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater
in 1882. Among the original cast was the bass Fyodor
Stravinsky, Igor's father, in the role of Grandfather
Frost.
As in many Russian folk tales (Stravinsky's The
Firebird comes to mind), The Snow Maiden includes both
real humans and imaginary or fairy-tale figures (Bonny
Spring, Grandfather Frost, Forest Sprite). The latter
chiefly occupy the Prologue, but the Snow Maiden
"crosses over" into the world of humans. The libretto
recounts a meandering love story with plenty of
opportunities for set pieces such as dances, strongly
lyrical arias and ensembles, and large-scale hymns and
choruses glorifying the Tsar.
Source: Kennedy Center
(https://www.kennedy-center.org/artist/composition/4351
).
Although originally scored for Orchestra, I created
this Arrangement of the "Dance of the Tumblers" (Mvt.
4) from the "Snow Maiden Suite" for Small Orchestra
(Piccolos, Flutes, Oboes, Bb Clarinets, Bassoons, Bb
Trumpets, French Horns, Trombones, Bass Trombones,
Tubas, Timpani & Percussion, Violins, Violas, Cellos &
Basses).
PARTITION