Sunday, October 23, 2016

Flight of the Bumble Bee

Flight of the Bumble Bee
(1899-1900)
by Russian composer Rimsky Korsakov
Originally an orchestral interlude for the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
Now popular as a stand-alone virtuoso piece for piano.
Also transcribed for other instruments. 
Characterized by torrents of cascading chromatic semiquavers,
representative of a buzzing bumble bee.
See Wikipedia entry here for details and background.