by shostakovich » Tue Jan 23, 2001 4:56 pm
Hi Leslie. Cute forest pun. I must be reading the wrong music books. Damned if I can come up with a single romantic torrid tale about Prokofiev. I'm always ready to learn, though. Anybody got one? <P> I admire Tomita. His renditions are not straightforward translations by any means. He's very creative. The Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks in his Pictures at an Exhibition cracks me up. He also did some Prokofiev. <P>Serge, you wrote about transcriptions. Have you heard Tomita's?<P>Hi Tim. The Snow Maiden!!! Whack (the sound of palm hitting forehead.)! Good for you. <P> I'm hauling the following story out of ancient memory. Tchaikovsky wrote a Snow Maiden, and Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his afterward. Tchaikovsky, ever the sensitive artist, took that as a statement from R-K that "I can do better than you". It was not intended as an insult to T., but he took it that way. Later, when T. discovered the sound of the celesta, and thought it perfect for his Sugar Plum Fairy, he had the instrument smuggled into Russia in fear that R-K should hear it and use it first. T. was a bit paranoid in that case. R-K would not have wanted to show up his compatriot. They both wrote operas on the tale of Vakula the Smith (Oksana's Caprices = The Slippers in T's case, Christmas Eve in R-K's). R-K waited till after T passed away to write his, in order not to offend T. Thanks for contributing, all.<BR>Shos.
