Spartacus: Suite

A suite from a ballet is a set of short scenes taken out of the story and played one after another, so there is no single plan to follow. Which pieces are chosen varies from one performance to the next, since Khachaturian himself assembled more than one suite.

The number most listeners recognize is the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia. It is a slow, sweeping love song for the strings, with the tune rising in long arcs. Many British listeners know it as the theme of a television series about a shipping family.

The faster numbers are the opposite in character. Expect sharp, stamping rhythms, brass calls, and a lot of percussion. The dances of the crowd and the soldiers pound forward and build to loud finishes, while dances for the women of the story are lighter and more swaying.

Watch how the music swings between these two moods, tenderness and force. That contrast is the heart of the ballet.

Aram Khachaturian, an Armenian composer working in the Soviet Union, wrote the ballet Spartacus in the 1950s. It tells of the slave revolt against Rome led by Spartacus. The ballet was staged in Leningrad in 1956, and he drew several concert suites from the score. The ballet was later revised for new productions, including the well-known Bolshoi staging of 1968. The suites are the form most orchestras play, and the Adagio in particular has taken on a life of its own outside the theater.