About this edition
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov regarded his opera The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka) as his own favorite among all his stage works, and the orchestral suite drawn from it shows why. Built on Alexander Ostrovsky's play of Slavic myth and the turning of the seasons, the music radiates the composer's singular gift for orchestral color: shimmering evocations of birdsong and awakening spring, the stately Procession of Tsar Berendey, and the exuberant Dance of the Tumblers, one of his most frequently performed orchestral showpieces. It stands among the finest examples of Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral mastery, the teaching and craft that would go on to shape a generation of composers, Stravinsky among them.
This edition reproduces the full orchestral score as issued in St. Petersburg by W. Bessel & Cie., the composer's principal Russian publisher through the 1880s and 1890s and one of the most important music publishing houses in Imperial Russia. Though undated on the title page, the plate number (2847) places this printing at approximately 1895, within Rimsky-Korsakov's own lifetime and during the period when Bessel was actively bringing his operatic and orchestral works to press. As an early published source for the suite, it offers a historically grounded text, reflecting the score much as the composer's contemporaries would have encountered it.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score, suitable for study, conducting, and reference
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Reproduced from a historical public domain edition
- Published by Purple 4R Publishing
Because the original edition has long since entered the public domain, we're able to bring this beautifully crafted score back into print at an accessible price — putting a genuine piece of Russian musical history into the hands of conductors, players, students, and scholars alike.
