Music & Ballet How ballet music took centre stage | Page 5

However, the status of ballet music - and by extension of its
composers - was still considered to be somewhat inferior to
more weighty orchestral works. Ballet composers were
referred to as “specialists”. They were craftsmen rather than
innovators, their work artisanal rather than artistic. But the
next chapter in the story of ballet music changed that,
though not in France - the country of its birth - but in Russia.
Here, Tchaikovsky would usher in a new era of ballet
composition with his music for Swan Lake. This was the first
ballet music to be written by a composer of symphonies, and
even Tchaikovsky himself believed the work to be somewhat
beneath him. However, while studying the music of
“specialists” such as Cesare Pugni in preparation for Swan
Lake, Tchaikovsky became enamoured with the finesse and
skill involved in the composition of ballet music. With the
composer’s symphonic background and the influence of the
infectious, detailed music of “specialist” ballet
composers, Swan Lake had a recipe for success. Yet it was
apparently aruged that Tchaikovsky’s music was too complex
to perform to. Moreover, the ballet's première in 1877 (at
the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow) didn’t achieve the success its
makers had hoped for. The ballet was rearranged and
revived in 1895 (at The Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg)
Time has shown the wiser, however, and Swan Lake is now
the world’s most frequently performed ballet. Tchaikovsky’s
music, with sections such as the serene waltz of Act 1, has
undoubtedly kept audiences coming back for more.