Considering how naturally the dance idiom seemed to come to him, it is surprising that Tchaikovsky composed only three ballet scores—in contrast to 10 operas. Yet while these operas have only recently begun to regain currency on the stage, the ballets have each earned a central place in the repertoire of classical dance: Swan Lake is the quintessential compendium of 19th-century dance styles, Sleeping Beauty remains the archetypical fairy-tale romance, and The Nutcracker stands as perennial holiday favorite.

Sleeping Beauty, perhaps the least known of the three, is in the opinion of many music-lovers the work with the most powerful music. Composed in the first half of 1889, on the heels of the Fifth Symphony, the ballet received its first performance at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater in January 1890, in an incomparable production by the scenarist Ivan Aleksandrovich Vsevolozhsky and the choreographer Marius Petipa. Even then, many of those present felt that the music overpowered the dance, and this might be the reason why dance companies produce this piece with less frequency than the other two. The music that is traditionally performed as “Op. 66a” was not prepared by Tchaikovsky, but it serves as a satisfying and well-balanced suite.

The ballet begins with the music associated with the evil fairy Carabosse, which in the Suite’s first movement (Introduction: The Lilac Fairy) leads to the gentle strains associated with the “good fairy” sent to protect Princess Aurora. The Adagio from Act I represents the scene at the princess’s 16th birthday in which she receives four roses from four different suitors. Panorama from Act II is music to accompany the prince’s ride in the Lilac Fairy’s boat, as he travels to seek out his princess. The Waltz from Act I closes the Suite with the ballet’s most famous music.

—Paul J. Horsley