TCHAIKOVSKY: Snow Maiden [CD de audio] USSR State Choir and Orchestra, Tchaikovsky and Andrei Chistjakov

Pedro Tchaikovsky became famous for his ballets, his symphonies and his First Piano Concerto. The Snow Girl (Das Schneemädchen) is one of his first works, composed by Tchaikovsky at the age of 32, based on a play by Alexander Ostrowsky, the main Russian playwright between Gogol and Tchekhov. The story is reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen's La Sirenita in the Russian version. In almost no play did Tchaikovsky make such intense use of Russian folklore as here. He used a dozen Russian folk songs, which he masterfully arranged for singing, choir and orchestra. The dances already reveal the brilliant creator of ballets. Tchaikovsky used parts of his unsuccessful opera Undina in Snegoruchka, the composition of the tragic and romantic sung fairy tale, which he himself considered one of his best works. After some successful performances of Snegoruchka as stage music, her great mentor Nikolai Rubinstein successfully conducted the work in concert, without Ostrowsky's work. Tchaikovsky later considered making an opera on the subject. However, his colleague Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov beat him to the race and published his version of the opera Snegoruchka based on Ostrowsky's work. Wonderful unknown music of the greatest Russian composer.