Suite from Cinderella

arranged for violin and piano by Mikhail Fichtenholz

Waltz: Allegretto

Gavotte: Allegretto

Passepied: Allegretto

The Winter Fairy: Moderato, quasi allegretto

Mazurka: Allegro ma non troppo

When it was first performed, at the Bolshoi in November 1945, Prokofiev’s Cinderella was just the fairy-tale tonic the Soviet 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. Like Romeo and Juliet, it has provided material for several concert suites, including no fewer than three for orchestra and three for piano by Prokofiev himself.

Prominent among Cinderella arrangements by other composers is the present Suite for violin and piano by Mikhail Fichtenholz, who has chosen five of the most attractive numbers but has put them together in his own order rather than as they appear in the ballet. The opening Waltz, for example occurs in Act II just after Cinderella arrives at the ball. Danced by Cinderella and the Prince, it is the most developed of several waltzes in this opulent score. The Gavotte comes from earlier in the story in Act I: Cinderella is still at home and, remembering the gavotte tune a despairing dancing master had played to the Ugly Sisters, makes a far more graceful spectacle than they did.

With the Passepied, performed by the Prince’s courtiers, we are at the ball again but before Cinderella gets there. It is, of course, through the magical intervention of the Fairy Godmother – who makes her entry with the Spring Fairy, the Summer Fairy, the Autumn Fairy and the Winter Fairy towards the end of Act I – that Cinderella is able to follow her sisters to the ball. Each of the fairies has her own variation, the Winter Fairy’s being based on an exotic melody Prokofiev had written decades earlier. Rather than transcribe the short variation from the ballet, Fichtenholz imports the whole of the Winter Fairy movement as Prokofiev scored it in his Five Melodies for violin and piano in 1925 – which no doubt explains why the violin writing is so much more inspired in this piece. The Mazurka, an energetic dance for the Prince just before Cinderella arrives at the ball, makes an effective finale.

Gerald Larner © 2008