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Suite from Swan Lake

Movements:

  1. Act II, No. 10: Scène
  2. Act I, No. 2: Valse (Corps de ballet)
  3. Act II, No. 13, Danses des cygnes IV and V
  4. Act IV, No. 29: Scène finale
Orchestration: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 cornets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, tam-tam, triangle), harp, and strings

At the behest of the Moscow Directorate, I am writing the music for the ballet The Lake of Swans. I took this work on partly for the money, which I need, and partly because I have long wanted to try my hand at writing this type of music.

— Tchaikovsky, writing to composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov on September 10, 1875

You know that the French composer [Léo] Delibes has written ballets. Since ballets are not things with a permanent existence … he’s made concert suites to be performed from them. The other day, I remembered my Swan Lake and wanted very much to preserve this music, which contains a few decent things, from oblivion. And so I have decided, like Delibes, to make a suite from it.

— Tchaikovsky, writing to publisher Pyotr Jurgenson on September 20, 1882