The ballet "Snow Maiden" is called sometimes "the fourth ballet" of Tchaikovsky though the composer has no such ballet. But there is music to Alexander Ostrovsky's play fairy tale "Snow Maiden". The theatre performance of the play of Ostrovsky thought from the very beginning as a musical and drama performance with participation of orchestra, chorus and singers-soloists. In three weeks young professor of the Moscow conservatory Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote music to the fairy tale at the request of the playwright.
The premiere took place on May 11, 1873 in the Bolshoi theatre. The play was met by public cool though music was pleasant too much. It was also taken as a basis for ballet stagings. In 1947 the famous Russian ballet master Fedor Lopukhov on musical materials of Tchaikovsky staged the ballet "Spring Fairy Tale" in Leningrad. And in 1963 Vladimir Burmeyster – the ballet "Snow Maiden" in Moscow.
The ballet tells story about the daughter of Vesna and Father Frost – the Snow Maiden who fell in love and thawed from burning beams of Yarilo-Sun. This one of the most inspired compositions of the composer. Music is filled with pleasure, heat and fun, spring mood. Tchaikovsky managed is incredibly thin to transfer the Russian national color.
In the score of the ballet, except Tchaikovsky's music written to Ostrovsky's play the music from other works of the composer is turned also on: The first symphony "Winter Dreams", the Serenade for string band, the Big piano sonata and others.
