145 mm x 205 mm

The ballet ''Ala and Lollius'' turned to the Scythian Suite for full orchestra in 4 movements ??. 20. Sergei Prokofiev composed the music itself in 1914-1915.

It was embodied as the ballet after the composer's London tour together with S. Dyagilev company. Just that very time the musical critic V. Karatygin introduced Prokofiev to the poet acmeist Sergei Gorodetsky, who offered the new project to the composer. It ? ?? the libretto based on the Ancient Slavonian mythological images, partially used in Gorodetsky's book ''Yar’''. The libretto abounded with the personages, which names were stylized according to the Slavonian paganism, ?. g. the wooden female idol Ala, the Chuzhbog, going to abduct Ala, the Scythian knight hero Lollius, who perishes fighting against odds, the almighty Veles, God of th? Sun (this name is borrowed from mythology) defeating Chuzhbog with his rays.

The piano score was completed as drafts in the end of ?? Winter, 1915. Dyagilev's friends and comrades studied it. Both V. Nuvel and ?. Nurok expressed their dubious attitude to this music. Having met with Prokofiev in Italy, Dyagilev delayed his work at the ballet. Meanwhile, the composer and entrepreneur agreed about the new fairy ballet ''Tale of ? Jester, Overjoking the Seven Jesters''. However, in Summer, 1915, Prokofiev returned to his ballet's sketches, having decided to extract uninteresting material, leaving the really worthy music. Thus the suite ''Scythian Suite'' consisting of 4 movements, came into being. It wholly corresponded to the 4 scenes of the ballet. The suite seemed to sign Prokofiev's tradition of the opera and ballet theatrical drama music to be formed in this genre.

The ''Scythian Suite'' was firstly performed in Petersburg at the Seventh Season-Ticket of ?. Ziloti in the Mariinsky Theatre Hall on January 16, 1916. The author conducted himself. The suite was ? success, undergoing the rather contradictory response. Turbule