This two-disc set marks the beginning of a new project devoted\nto Tchaikovsky’s ballet scores. We start the survey with the\ncomplete score of The Sleeping Beauty, recorded on SACD. Swan Lake\nand The Nutcracker will follow in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

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Tchaikovsky was approached by the Director of the Imperial\nTheatres in St Petersburg, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, in 1888 about a\npossible ballet adaptation of Charles Perrault’s La Belle au bois\ndormant (The Sleeping Beauty). The vision was to stage the\nproduction in the style of Louis XIV, allowing the musical fantasy\nto run high and melodies to be written in the spirit of Lully,\nBach, and Rameau. This proposal for a fairy-tale ballet rooted\nfirmly in both the rococo and baroque periods appealed to\nTchaikovsky, and The Sleeping Beauty was premiered in 1890, with\nchoreography by Petipa, the principal choreographer of his day.

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Elaborately constructed, the ballet places its focus undeniably\non the two main conflicting forces of good (the Lilac Fairy) and\nevil (Carabosse). Each has a representative leitmotif, which runs\nthrough the entire ballet, serving as an important thread to the\nunderlying plot. Tchaikovsky’s use of what, at the time, were\nconsidered new and unorthodox instrumental combinations went on to\ninspire a new generation of composers, among them Stravinsky, who\ndeclared The Sleeping Beauty to be Tchaikovsky’s chef d’œuvre.

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The Sleeping Beauty is here performed by the Bergen Philharmonic\nOrchestra under Neeme Järvi, who is celebrating two major\nmilestones this year: a thirty-year recording career with Chandos\nRecords, and his own seventy-fifth birthday. Orchestra and\nconductor are joined by the pre-eminent violinist James Ehnes, one\nof the most dynamic and exciting performers in classical music\ntoday.

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