Four Dances from Cinderella

Arrival –

Waltz

Midnight

Amoroso

When it was first performed, at the Bolshoi in November 1945, Prokofiev’s Cinderella was just the fairy-tale tonic the Russian public needed after the trials they had suffered in the war. It was an immediate success. Based on the familiar Charles Perrault version of the story, it is more traditional in style than his preceding ballet, Romeo and Juliet, less dramatic perhaps but no less tuneful and no less engagingly orchestrated. Cinderella’s Arrival at the ball in the second act is a lovely example of the luminous sound characteristic of the ballet: woodwind colours sparkle with applications of silvery celesta notes and an expressive melody associated from the start with Cinderella soars on high violins. The Prince is enchanted and immediately invites her to dance a Waltz which, with its three well contrasted main themes, is the most developed of several waltzes in this opulent score. Midnight, however, is a violent interruption of screeching woodwind, loud tick-tocks on woodblock, grotesque brass interjections and striking bells. With an impassioned recall of her melody Cinderella leaves the ball. All ends happily, of course, in the concluding Amoroso, where Cinderella floats in on violins and she and the Prince dance a short but meltingly romantic slow waltz.