Shostakovich: Suite from The Bolt, Op. 27a

Description

After the ballet's failure (which was more decisive than that endured earlier by The Golden Age, which managed to sustain 18 performances), Shostakovich had no desire to return to its music, rearranging it instead into a suite. Conductor Alexander Gauk undertook this work with the composer's consent. The variety show nature of the ballet made it easy to convert it into a suite. More than half of the ballet's items were antic dance portraits, and it was these that became the core of the new arrangement.