The first of Tchaikovsky's great ballet scores, Swan Lake has been enshrined in the public's imagination as the classical ballet non pareil. Little is known of this work's origins and early history except from anecdotal evidence, and performances in Tchaikovsky's lifetime were variable and sporadic. The score was published posthumously, and it did not achieve lasting fame until after the 1895 revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Swan Lake appears to have been assembled from an earlier amusement for children, The Lake ...
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The first of Tchaikovsky's great ballet scores, Swan Lake has been enshrined in the public's imagination as the classical ballet non pareil. Little is known of this work's origins and early history except from anecdotal evidence, and performances in Tchaikovsky's lifetime were variable and sporadic. The score was published posthumously, and it did not achieve lasting fame until after the 1895 revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Swan Lake appears to have been assembled from an earlier amusement for children, The Lake of the Swans, music for an abandoned stage work, Undine, and several other loose pieces; and it was subsequently rearranged many times to suit the needs of choreographers. Therefore, it is less unified than the more sophisticated Sleeping Beauty and the perennial holiday favorite, The Nutcracker. Yet Swan Lake is rife with charming melodies and dramatic scenes, many of which are familiar from the popular concert suite and frequent use in films. Wolfgang Sawallisch recorded this...
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