Shostakovich - Dances of the Dolls - Seven Pieces for Piano

Dmitri Shostakovich earned his money with the piano in his early years, for example as an accompanist for silent films. Up until the 1960s he appeared in public as a pianist, mostly playing his own works. Like Maurice Ravel, Shostakovich also made orchestral versions of some of the piano pieces. On the other hand, the movements of the seven-part suite of the “Puppet Dances”, which were written in 1952 for young piano students, first existed as orchestral works from the film, stage and ballet music of the 1930s.

The Lyric Waltz is the fifth number from the Third Ballet Suite, which in turn comes from the third act of the ballet "Der Hellen Bach" op. 39, composed in 1935. The romance and the polka are also taken from this ballet. The gavotte comes from the third ballet suite. The First Ballet Suite is the source of the Waltz-Scherzo subtitled The Little Ballerina. The final dance is the only original composition of this distinctive suite.

Content

Pages: 20
Language: English/German
Publisher: Sikorski