Weekend Repertoire: Fairy Pieces from Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite

Since we’ve been discussing ways to motivate ourselves to practice, I thought for Weekend Repertoire this week I’d share a piece I am working on a bit!

Actually, it is four pieces – they come from Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite, op. 97, which is his piano arrangement of music from his ballet Cinderella. I first discovered this work in college, and immediately loved it! The four pieces that caught my attention from this collection are the four fairy pieces – Spring Fairy, Summer Fairy, Autumn Fairy and Winter Fairy.

These are short pieces which are so fun and imaginative, and I love how they really evoke distinct feelings about each of the different seasons. For example, Spring Fairy is fast and full of life, while Summer Fairy totally sounds to me like a hot, sunny, lazy summer day (speaking of which, I am about to experience my first San Antonio summer, and I’m getting a bit nervous with April temperatures already being consistently in the 90’s….and I am just about to enter my third trimester of pregnancy….wish me luck!!).

If you are not familiar with these pieces, they are so fun to discover! You can listen to some mp3 samples by pianist Frederic Chiu here.

The sheet music seems a bit hard to come by – amazon.com says it is currently unavailable, but it looks like you may be able to purchase it from sheetmusicplus.com.

View the orchestral/ballet version of Summer Fairy here: