This New Classical Adventure CD presents the rarely-recorded arrangement by Sergei Rachmaninov for piano (four hands) of Tchaikovsky’s popular ballet, The Sleeping Beauty. On the recording it is performed by the Russian husband and wife duo of Andrej and Olga Hoteev.

Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty was an instant success when it was given its world premiere in 1890 at the famous Mariinsky theatre in St. Petersburg. The composer himself considered it to be his best ballet music and the work achieved such popularity that later composers took it up. The most famous example of this in piano literature is undoubtedly the arrangement made by fellow Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov.

That Rachmaninov, at the time merely 17 years old, should undertake this task must have astonished his contemporaries. On the other hand the youthful composer had been able to gain some experience of this kind of arranging during his studies, as he had occupied himself in 1886 with a four-hand version of Tchaikovsky’s Manfred overture, albeit under the supervision of Anton Arensky. On 19th July 1890, the new work was shown to Tchaikovsky who fully approved. Since that time, this transcription has become a standard in piano duo repertoire.