Tchaikovsky wrote his incidental music for Ostrovsky's Snow Maiden in 1873; and though he accepted it was not the best of which he was capable, he retained an affection for it and was upset when Rimsky-Korsakov came along with his full-length opera on the subject. The tale of love frustrated had its appeal for Tchaikovsky, even though he was not to make as much as Korsakov was of the failed marriage between Man and Nature. But though he did not normally interest himself much in descriptions of the natural world, and was by the nature of the commission from the Imperial Theatres unable to work the subject into operatic form, there are charming numbers that any lover of Tchaikovsky's music will surely be delighted to encounter. A good many of these derive from folk-song, and his proclaimed sensitivity about altering the distinctive melodic and rhythmic contours of Russian folk-song must not be taken too literally: on more than one occasion he was quite ready to amend them to suit his purposes. Much is here accommodated to a sophisticated audience's expectations.
Yet a strong sense of a Russian folk celebration, and of the interaction of the natural and supernatural worlds, also comes through, especially in the earlier part of the music. There is a delightful dance and chorus for the birds, and a powerful monologue for Winter; this is vigorously but somewhat hectoringly sung by Alexander Arkhipov for Chistiakov, where Vladimir Grishko, placed further back, sounds more magical. Natalia Erassova (also for Chistiakov) gets round the rapid enunciation of Lel's second song without much difficulty, but does not quite bring the character to life; Irina Mishura-Lekhtman has a brighter sparkle. Chistiakov's Shrove Tuesday procession goes at a much steadier pace than Jarvi's, and is thus the more celebratory and ritual where the other is a straightforward piece of merriment.
Both performances have much to recommend them, and it is not by a great deal that I suggest Jarvi's as the preferable. The balance is further tilted by CdM providing only an English (and French) translation of the text unmatched to a Russian text or transliteration, making it hard to gather what is going on at any given moment; Chandos provide transliteration and English translation.'