The Sleeping Beauty Suite

Peter Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

The Sleeping Beauty is numbered among Tchaikovsky's master works.  Inspired by Charles Perrault's fairytale, Tchaikovsky conceived this ballet in symphonic terms.  This dramatic work was given its première at the Marinski Theatre, Saint Petersburg in January 1889, with a set reputed to have cost 80,000 roubles.

Siloti having completed a very effective solo piano arrangement of the ballet, was approached by Tchaikovsky to make a piano duet version.  However, he had suffered a slight injury to his hand which had prevented him from writing and therefore suggested that Rachmaninoff, who was only 17 at the time, should

score the ballet for piano duet.  It was completed in the summer of 1890 and was published a year later.  Selected movements were published as The Sleeping Beauty Suite in 1892.

We were delighted to find the Rachmaninoff arrangement in the British Library.  For reasons of texture we have chosen to record it on two pianos.  This enables us to play the ethereal harp arpeggios in the Panorama, where Prince Charming is gliding downstream in a fairy boat to find the sleeping princess.  We feel certain that Rachmaninoff would have included these had he been writing for two pianos rather than one.

© Apollo Recordings 2001