Скачать или смотреть Fairy Tale Pictures by composer Alla Borzova

00:14 1. Bogatyrs’ Watch (Богатырский Дозор)
02:52 2. Chimes (Перезвоны)
05:17 3. Dream-Grass (Одолень-Трава)
08:16 4. Baba Yaga (Баба Яга)
09:39 5. The Gate to the Fairy Tale Kingdom (Ворота в Тридевятое Царство)

Olga Gurevich, pianist. This performance took place at the Scandinavian House, in New York City, on March 18, 2018.

Fairy Tale Pictures (Сказочные Картинки), five pieces for piano solo, were inspired by the fascinating world of Slavic fairy tales. The opening movement, “Bogatyrs’s Watch”, is the brief variations to a short theme. This movement was inspired by the famous painting Three Bogatyrs by Viktor Vasnetsov, the Russian artist of the turn of the 20th century, who specialized in Russian mythological and historical subjects. On the picture three mighty bogatyrs (epic heros-warriors of Kievan Rus’) on horsebacks overlook the unbounded expanses of Russia. “Chimes” is written in a ternary form. The beginning of each section is marked by the entry of two chimes, followed by the imitative development of their motive. “Dream-Grass”, also written in a ternary form, is based on the theme of the Belarusian folk lullaby. In the Slavic fairy tales, Dream-Grass grass has the power to make a live creature fall asleep for eternity. The very important part of this piece is its Coda: the unconcerned Time counts indifferently the instants of our life. The title “Baba Yaga” inevitably reminds a listener about the pieces of Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky of the same name. Baba Yaga is a vicious witch who flies around in a giant mortar navigated by the broom. She also kidnaps and eats little children who don’t listen to their parents. This piece is a virtuoso fugue, the music of which gradually becomes wilder and eventually goes out of control. “The Gate to the Fairy Tale Kingdom” is based on just six intervals, which build the entire texture of the piece. It is written in binary form; in the second part, the right and left hands exchange their parts (in musical terms it is called double counterpoint). After a climax the music of the third movement’s Coda returns with the image of Time.

Fairy Tale Pictures were premiered by Irina Shumilina at the international festival Belarusian Musical Autumn in 1986 and immediately included into the repertoire of many pianists. A year later they were published by the publishing house "Muzyka" in Moscow. Currently the piece is published by Euterpe Press (ASCAP) and available via Bill Holab Music. Among other performances of the piece in the U.S. are those by Eileen Buck, Max Lifchitz, and Cristina Valdes.


The performance materials are available from Bill Holab Music at BillHolabMusic.com