Suite from the Ballet The Bolt. Op. 27a. Score.
Volume 72
2015
Suite From the Ballet The Bolt. Op. 27а
Edited by Victor Ekimovsky. Explanatory article by Olesya Bobrik.

After the ballet’s failure (which was more decisive than that endured earlier by The Golden Age, which managed to sustain 18 performances), Shostakovich had no desire to return to its music, rearranging it instead into a suite. Conductor Alexander Gauk undertook this work with the composer’s consent. The variety show nature of the ballet made it easy to convert it into a suite. More than half of the ballet’s items were antic dance portraits, and it was these that became the core of the new arrangement.
In its original version, the Suite was comprised of eight parts:
- Overture,
- Dance of the Bureaucrat,
- Dance of the Drayman,
- Tango (Dance of Kozelkov and His Friends),
- Interlude,
- Dance of the Colonial Slave Girl,
- The Yes-Man and
- Final Dance [and] Apotheosis
The author prepared a second version for publication, in which he removed two parts—Nos. 6 and 7, and gave all the items new names:
- Introduction,
- Polka,
- Variation,
- Tango,
- Interlude
- Finale
This publication features the second version, while two items from the first version (Dance of the Colonial Slave Girl and The Yes-Man) are given in the Appendix.
Orchestra:
Piccolo, 2 Flauti (II = Piccolo II), 2 Oboi, Corno inglese, Clarinetto piccolo (Es) =, Clarinetto basso (B), 2 Clarinetti (B), 2 Fagotti, Contrafagotto
6 Corni (F), 3 Trombe (B), 3 Tromboni, Tuba
Timpani, Triangolo, Tamburino, Tamburo, Piatti, Cassa, Tam-tam
Campanelli, Silofono
BANDA: Cornetto piccolo (Es), 2 Cornetti (B), 2 Trombe (B), 2 Alti (Es), 2 Tenori (B), 2 Baritoni (B), 2 Bassi
Violini I, Violini II, Viole, Violoncelli, Contrabassi