The Limpid Stream, Comedy Ballet in three acts and four scenes, Op. 39 (1935)
(The Bright Stream)

Full-length ballet on a scenario by Fyodor Lopukhov and Adrian Piotrovsky.

Shostakovich’s third and final ballet – and his second project with the great choreographer Lopukhov - is more conventional and traditionally ‘balletic’ than his first two. By the time he wrote it, Stalin’s repressive doctrines of Socialist-Realism were beginning to bite and the plot has little satire and is relatively conventional: a group of ballet-dancers have been sent into the countryside to bring sophisticated metropolitan entertainment to a successful new Soviet Collective Farm. After some complicated amorous intrigues, it turns out that the honest country-bumpkins have more to teach the city-folk than the other way round.

What is most delightful in this little-known ballet are the extended dance-sequences, often parodying or imitating the great ballet-composers of the past like Tchaikovsky, but with a fresh, modern, open-air and energetic sparkle all their own. The score abounds in light and catchy melodies and dance-rhythms to get the foot tapping, Shostakovich at his most fluent and easily accessible.

Note by Gerard McBurney

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1. Ouverture (Allegro)
Act I
Scene 1
2. Adagio. Zina and Pyotr (Adagio – Allegro – Allegro vivo)
3. March (Allegretto)
4. Meeting between Two Friends (Allegretto)
5. Examination Dance (Allegretto – Tempo di mazurka)
6. March (Allegretto)
7. Scene and Waltz-Entr’acte (Allegretto – Meno mosso)
Scene 2
8. The Celebration (Allegro)
9. Russian Dance (Allegro)
10. Chaconne (Andantino – Più mosso – Tempo primo)
11. Young Girl’s Dance (Allegro)
12. Dance of the Milkmaid and the Tractor Driver (Moderato con moto)
13. The Ballerina’s Waltz (Tempo di valse)
14. Comic Dance (Galya and the Accordion Player) (Allegro – Moderato – Allegro – Più mosso)
15. Dance of the Mountain Tribesmen and Men from Kuban (Presto)
16. Departure (Allegro)
17. Zina’s Jealousy (Allegretto)
18. Revelation of Zina’s Profession (Allegretto – Tempo di mazurka)
19. The Plot (Allegro)
Act II
Scene 3
20. Invitation to a Rendez-vous (Adagio)
21. Dressing-Up Scene (Allegro)
22. Entry of Galya and the Accordion Player (Andantino)
23. Tango (Allegro – Andante – Meno mosso – Andante – Allegro – Meno mosso – Allegro)
24. Playing Jokes on the Elderly Couple (Allegretto)
25. Adagio. Arrival at the Rendezvous
26. Waltz. Variation of the Ballet Dancer in Woman’s Dress (Allegretto)
27. Variation of the Ballerina in Her Partner’s Costume (Allegro)
28. Coda (Allegro)
29. Adagio. Pyotr and Zina in the Ballerina’s Costume
30. The Plotter’s Dance (Moderato)
31. Zina’s Variation (Presto – Moderato)
32. Coda (Allegro)
33. A Mise-en-Scène in Dance ‘The Murder’ (Allegretto poco moderato)
34. Variation of the ‘Murdered Lady’ (Allegro – Meno mosso)
35. Finale Coda (Presto)
Act III
Scene 4
36. Entr’acte ‘The Swings’ (Allegro molto)
37. March ‘The Harvest Celebraton’ [Tempo di marcia]
38. Waltz (Andantino)
39. Revelation Scene (Andantino – [Adagio] – Presto)
40. The Ballet Dancer’s Variation (Allegro – Più mosso)
41. The Ballerina’s Variation (Allegretto)
42. Zina’s Variation (Allegro – Meno [mosso] – a tempo)
43. Coda [Presto]
44. Final Dance (Allegro – Più mosso – Poco meno mosso)

Pieces not included in the stage version of the ballet:
1. After ‘March’ before ‘Waltz’ of the Ballet Dancers [Vivo]
2. After Reviewing Those in Disguise (Vivo)
3. The Weavers’ Dance (Moderato non troppo)
4. Zina’s and Pyotr’s Dance [Moderato con moto]
5. Lubok (Folk Dance) (Allegretto)
6. A Mise-en-Scène in Dance ‘The Murder’. Variant (Allegro molto)
7. The Swings (Presto)
8. Adagio
9. Variation (Allegretto)
10. Zina’s Variation (second version) (Allegretto)
11. Zina’s Variation (third version) (Allegretto)

Fragments of pieces not included in the stage version of the ballet:
1. Variation (Allegro)
2. Finale of Act I [Presto]
3. Finale of Act I (final bars) [Presto]
4. Fragment [Allegro]