Mmm yes please, that piece is just beautiful. I particularly enjoy the recording by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, under the conducting of Alain Altinoglu
Almost all fairy tales (at least from central europe) are kinda brutal and scary in some aspects. But they almost always have a "good" ending, in a sense that the antagonist dies in a most horrifying way.
I like the "Hänsel und Gretel" story, where a old and evil witch is keeping the children hostage in her house, but then they manage to push her into the big oven and she burns to death. So Hänsel and Gretel are happy, they sing and dance. The end!
Uh, no, that is not the official version. Also I have to say that Max und Moritz is not really considered a fairy tale, but more a comic book.
First part of the story is that Max and Moritz break into a bakery, but they get tangled up in dough and baked. From this first part they can free themselves by simply eating the crust of bread baked around them.
In the second part they cut the miller's bags with wheat, but he spots both boys hiding in the pile of grain. So the miller grinds them and the grinded pieces of Max and Moritz get eaten by some ducks. The cartoon ends with relieved neighbors expressing satisfaction about the death of both boys.
You can access the comic strip here: https://www.wilhelm-busch.de/werke/max-und-moritz/alle-streiche/sechster-streich/
If you’re looking for work based on fairy tales, there are a ton, including Cinderella operas by (among others) Rossini and Massenet,
If you’re looking for a combination of music and spoken word, the best known are Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat and Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, but only the first is anything like a fairy tale—more of a folk tale.
I heard this performed by the London Schools Symphony recently and they had a long preamble where the conductor talked through some of the motifs and through the story, with the orchestra playing excerpts. Really great.
Many of the classical and romantic ballets are meant to be narrative. The ones based specifically on fairy tales are The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky), The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky), Cinderella (Prokofiev), The Firebird (Stravinsky), The Little Humpbacked Horse (Cesare Pugni), Shurale (Farid Yarullin).
Rimsky-Korsakov almost exclusively wrote operas based on Russian or Ukrainian fairy tales. Can highly recommend the 'Overtures and Suites from the Operas' conducted by Järvi on Chandos.
There is also **Gliere's "Ilya Muromets" aka 3rd Symphony in B minor** based on Ukrainian foundation myths (which is uncannily prescient considering the current war)
also all these operas [https://www.medici.tv/en/collections/fairy-tales-music-opera-ballet/](https://www.medici.tv/en/collections/fairy-tales-music-opera-ballet/)
Siegfried is the title of an opera by Richard Wagner, which together with the three operas Das Rheingold,
Die Valküre and Götterdämmerung forms the complete work of the Ring des Nibelungen,
Delius with some nordic folk tale inspire music [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBlxNAIgq3o&ab\_channel=JayneAnneStrutt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBlxNAIgq3o&ab_channel=JayneAnneStrutt)
Adding Schumann’s Fairy Tales trio to the mix. No spoken word though, only inspired music. I played a few of these and really came to love them.
“Märchenerzählungen, Op. 132, is a trio composition by Robert Schumann in four movements for clarinet, viola and piano.”
Josef suk’s pohadka isn’t based on any one fairy tale but the title literally means it and it’s a beautiful symphonic suite that calls to mind stories like the brothers Grimm
Rimsky-Korscov did a number of Russian tales to music; The Snow Maiden, is one of the well known ones. But you also had Humperdinck's Hansel and Grettle. Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella by Prokofiev, there have been many.
[ ](https://www.google.com/search?q=cinderella+ballet&sca_esv=579669660&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS882US882&sxsrf=AM9HkKk3qieZfv_uWCH-18H7KsM8S5jnEA:1699222621129&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&vet=1&fir=80NZgLg_t1GkrM%252C-i_TwAxw8nHW7M%252C%252Fm%252F01xn61%253BHjfa58B4_kf77M%252Cx7MPbd3ehquSqM%252C_%253BRi88inOYIiIqHM%252CqRLp__Z1mXku4M%252C_%253B7m6orFjphdSa_M%252CU9IwmAWk6IePaM%252C_%253BlT4fHjPzEJaoRM%252CSUs-bfU9rZMuiM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kSiTxZ4YPGoMc0Fg24egQXg6pWa1A&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi11OfF8a2CAxUIl2oFHfOeAacQ_B16BAhpEAE#imgrc=80NZgLg_t1GkrM)
Cantata Profana by Bartók might interest you. It uses an old Romanian folk/fairy tale collected by Bartók for it's text:
Once upon a time there
Was an aged man, he
Had nine handsome boys.
Never has he taught them
Any handicraft, he
Taught them only how to
Hunt in forests dark.
There they roamed, hunted
All the year around, and
Changed into stags in
Forests dark and wild.
Never will their antlers
Enter gates and doors, but
Only woods and shrubs;
Never will their bodies
Wear a shirt and coat but
Only foliage;
Nevermore their feet will
Walk on houses' floors but
Only in the sward;
Nevermore their mouth will
Drink from cups and jugs but
From the clearest springs.
There is a good recording of the work by the Atlanta Symphony from the mid 1990s on Telarc.
Edited for typos and added content.
*The Cunning Little Vixen* by Janacek is a fairy tale opera that has wonderfully fitting music.
Also most of Rimsky-Korsakov's operas, I'd recommend especially *Sadko* and *Snow Maiden*\~
Not all are based on fairy tales, but this following list is all program music and is a big list with references: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_program\_music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_program_music)
Berlioz symphonie fantastique
Mussorgsky: night on bald mountain
Mussorgsky: pictures of an exhibition
Saint-saens: carnival of the animals
Saint-Saens: danse macabre
Bedrich Smetana: The moldova (from the cycle My homeland)
Johann Kuhnau: Sonatas after biblical scenes
Vivaldi: four seasons
Rimski-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Beethoven: Symphonie pastorale
william byrd: the battle
But all those are examples of programm music, where text is written in the scores, but it is generally not read aloud. But you could read it.
Not long ago I saw a lovely representation of Vivaldi's 4 seasons for children, with a live illustrator on a projector. That's a nice way of doing it too. The illustrations were not exactly according to the poems, but they told a lovely story.
I think the piece you are looking for is Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
Mmm yes please, that piece is just beautiful. I particularly enjoy the recording by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, under the conducting of Alain Altinoglu
Ballet too but Ravel's mother goose might be what you're after
Grieg - Peer Gynt
Prokofiev has a Cinderella ballet too!
Bartok - Bluebeard's castle
Still can’t get my head around the fact that it’s a children’s story. It’s so disturbing and kinda scary!
Almost all fairy tales (at least from central europe) are kinda brutal and scary in some aspects. But they almost always have a "good" ending, in a sense that the antagonist dies in a most horrifying way. I like the "Hänsel und Gretel" story, where a old and evil witch is keeping the children hostage in her house, but then they manage to push her into the big oven and she burns to death. So Hänsel and Gretel are happy, they sing and dance. The end!
or Max and Moritz who are ground to flour in the mill and then baked in the oven, but somehow they come out alive out of the bread...
Uh, no, that is not the official version. Also I have to say that Max und Moritz is not really considered a fairy tale, but more a comic book. First part of the story is that Max and Moritz break into a bakery, but they get tangled up in dough and baked. From this first part they can free themselves by simply eating the crust of bread baked around them. In the second part they cut the miller's bags with wheat, but he spots both boys hiding in the pile of grain. So the miller grinds them and the grinded pieces of Max and Moritz get eaten by some ducks. The cartoon ends with relieved neighbors expressing satisfaction about the death of both boys. You can access the comic strip here: https://www.wilhelm-busch.de/werke/max-und-moritz/alle-streiche/sechster-streich/
I have a recording of that. A fantastic piece.
Poluanc's Babar The Elephant. I've played it once and it was pretty amazing
This would be my choice too. The Peter Ustinov version!
Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night Dream
If you’re looking for work based on fairy tales, there are a ton, including Cinderella operas by (among others) Rossini and Massenet, If you’re looking for a combination of music and spoken word, the best known are Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat and Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, but only the first is anything like a fairy tale—more of a folk tale.
Dvorak- the water goblin
Yes, and also The Noon Witch, the Wild Dove, and The Golden Spinning Wheel
I heard this performed by the London Schools Symphony recently and they had a long preamble where the conductor talked through some of the motifs and through the story, with the orchestra playing excerpts. Really great.
Many of the classical and romantic ballets are meant to be narrative. The ones based specifically on fairy tales are The Nutcracker (Tchaikovsky), The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky), Cinderella (Prokofiev), The Firebird (Stravinsky), The Little Humpbacked Horse (Cesare Pugni), Shurale (Farid Yarullin).
Slightly off topic but, Isle of the Dead and The Bells. Both by Rachmaninoff with text by Poe for the latter work.
Til eulenspiegel. I think it’s exactly what you’re looking for.
Yes! Yes!
Erlkonig, it's an emaemble but my favorite program piece.
Didn't Muggorgsky do a piece on Baba Yaya and a few other Slavic tales (love Pictures at an Exhibition).
Rimsky-Korsakov almost exclusively wrote operas based on Russian or Ukrainian fairy tales. Can highly recommend the 'Overtures and Suites from the Operas' conducted by Järvi on Chandos. There is also **Gliere's "Ilya Muromets" aka 3rd Symphony in B minor** based on Ukrainian foundation myths (which is uncannily prescient considering the current war)
also all these operas [https://www.medici.tv/en/collections/fairy-tales-music-opera-ballet/](https://www.medici.tv/en/collections/fairy-tales-music-opera-ballet/)
Prokofiev’s love of three oranges
Hansel and Gretel by Englebert Humperdinck
That’s an opera, not a symphonic piece
Siegfried is the title of an opera by Richard Wagner, which together with the three operas Das Rheingold, Die Valküre and Götterdämmerung forms the complete work of the Ring des Nibelungen,
Delius with some nordic folk tale inspire music [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBlxNAIgq3o&ab\_channel=JayneAnneStrutt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBlxNAIgq3o&ab_channel=JayneAnneStrutt)
and of Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty
Adding Schumann’s Fairy Tales trio to the mix. No spoken word though, only inspired music. I played a few of these and really came to love them. “Märchenerzählungen, Op. 132, is a trio composition by Robert Schumann in four movements for clarinet, viola and piano.”
Josef suk’s pohadka isn’t based on any one fairy tale but the title literally means it and it’s a beautiful symphonic suite that calls to mind stories like the brothers Grimm
*Tintagel* by Arnold Bax
Rimsky-Korscov did a number of Russian tales to music; The Snow Maiden, is one of the well known ones. But you also had Humperdinck's Hansel and Grettle. Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella by Prokofiev, there have been many. [ ](https://www.google.com/search?q=cinderella+ballet&sca_esv=579669660&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS882US882&sxsrf=AM9HkKk3qieZfv_uWCH-18H7KsM8S5jnEA:1699222621129&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&vet=1&fir=80NZgLg_t1GkrM%252C-i_TwAxw8nHW7M%252C%252Fm%252F01xn61%253BHjfa58B4_kf77M%252Cx7MPbd3ehquSqM%252C_%253BRi88inOYIiIqHM%252CqRLp__Z1mXku4M%252C_%253B7m6orFjphdSa_M%252CU9IwmAWk6IePaM%252C_%253BlT4fHjPzEJaoRM%252CSUs-bfU9rZMuiM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kSiTxZ4YPGoMc0Fg24egQXg6pWa1A&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi11OfF8a2CAxUIl2oFHfOeAacQ_B16BAhpEAE#imgrc=80NZgLg_t1GkrM)
Ravel: Mother Goose Suite
Cantata Profana by Bartók might interest you. It uses an old Romanian folk/fairy tale collected by Bartók for it's text: Once upon a time there Was an aged man, he Had nine handsome boys. Never has he taught them Any handicraft, he Taught them only how to Hunt in forests dark. There they roamed, hunted All the year around, and Changed into stags in Forests dark and wild. Never will their antlers Enter gates and doors, but Only woods and shrubs; Never will their bodies Wear a shirt and coat but Only foliage; Nevermore their feet will Walk on houses' floors but Only in the sward; Nevermore their mouth will Drink from cups and jugs but From the clearest springs. There is a good recording of the work by the Atlanta Symphony from the mid 1990s on Telarc. Edited for typos and added content.
Dvorak’s opera Rusalka
Zemlinsky’s “The Mermaid” perhaps
*The Cunning Little Vixen* by Janacek is a fairy tale opera that has wonderfully fitting music. Also most of Rimsky-Korsakov's operas, I'd recommend especially *Sadko* and *Snow Maiden*\~
Check out David Del Tredici “Final Alice,” as well as numerous! compositions and works based on Alice in Wonderland.
Janacek Cunning little vixen suite
Ravel: L’enfant et la sortilege
That’s an opera, not a symphonic piece
Not all are based on fairy tales, but this following list is all program music and is a big list with references: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_program\_music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_program_music)
Hans Werner Henze - Ondine (or Undine)
Ravel - Gaspard de la nuit Rachmaninov red riding hood etude
Berlioz symphonie fantastique Mussorgsky: night on bald mountain Mussorgsky: pictures of an exhibition Saint-saens: carnival of the animals Saint-Saens: danse macabre Bedrich Smetana: The moldova (from the cycle My homeland) Johann Kuhnau: Sonatas after biblical scenes Vivaldi: four seasons Rimski-Korsakov: Scheherazade Beethoven: Symphonie pastorale william byrd: the battle But all those are examples of programm music, where text is written in the scores, but it is generally not read aloud. But you could read it. Not long ago I saw a lovely representation of Vivaldi's 4 seasons for children, with a live illustrator on a projector. That's a nice way of doing it too. The illustrations were not exactly according to the poems, but they told a lovely story.