Pyotr Tchaikovsky: The Swan Lake Suite

On 20 September/2 October 1882, Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote to Russian music publisher Pyotr Jurgenson: “You know that the French composer Léo Delibes has written ballets. Since ballet is a thing without firm foundations, he made a concert suite from it. The other day I thought about my own Swan Lake, and I wanted very much to save this music from oblivion, since it contains some fine things. And so I decided to make a suite from it, like Delibes. In order to do this I need the whole piano score of the ballet as well as the full score. I don’t know whether you yourself have the full score; if not, and if it proves difficult to extract it from the theatre, just send me the arrangement for the time being, and afterwards I shall indicate to you which numbers and in which order they will be listed. And then, if you wish, this suite could be published in the form of a full score and arrangement for piano duet. Write and tell me what you think about this“. Jurgenson replied favorable to Tchaikovsky’s suggestion, and sent him the full score and piano arrangement of the ballet. However, it is not certain whether the composer selected any numbers at this time, and there are no further references to the suite in his correspondence. Seven years after Tchaikovsky’s death, in November 1900, Jurgenson published a “suite“ of six numbers from the ballet, as “Op. 20a“. It is unclear who chose these numbers from the ballet, and it is still possible that Tchaikovsky made the selection himself at some point during the 1880s or early 1890s. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Suite, Op. 20a, I. Scène (Act II, from the ballet) Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra David Parry, Conductor