The Snow Maiden: Suite

The third of Rimsky-Korsakov’s fifteen operas The Snow Maiden – first performed in St Petersburg in 1881 – is set in the legendary land of the Berendeyans, which is condemned to remain in the grip of Winter until the Snow Maiden’s icy heart softens and she falls in love with a mortal. This she eventually does, bringing Spring to the Berendeyans but, as she melts away, death to herself.

The orchestral suite which Rimsky drew from The Snow Maiden score begins, like the opera itself, in the forest at night but, as a cock crowing on oboe and then cor anglais indicates, not far from sunrise. Gradually more and more birds make themselves heard on flute and piccolo while an expressive melody on violas and cellos suggests that the sun is beginning to shine. In fact, as the Dance of the Birds clearly demonstrates, it is time for the dawn chorus, which is accompanied here by a cheerful Russian folk song. The Cortège representing, somewhat satiricially, a procession led by Tsar Berendey leads directly into the bustle of the Tumblers’ Dance. Based on another Russian folk tune dressed up in characteristically brilliant orchestral colours, it is animated by virtually non-stop activity on strings and woodwind punctuated by dramatic interventions from brass and percussion.