Suite for Orchestra No. 1

Composer: SHOSTAKOVICH, Dmitri
  • Suite for Orchestra No. 1 (also known as Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1) is an eight-movement arrangement of orchestral music from Shostakovich’s catalog of ballet, musical theater, and film music written between the 1930s and 50s:
    1. March
    2. Dance I
    3. Dance II
    4. Little Polka
    5. Lyrical Waltz
    6. Waltz I
    7. Waltz II
    8. Finale
  • The “variety” in the title refers to instruments included in the orchestra including saxophone, guitar, and accordion.
  • *Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1 was mistakenly identified for several years as Jazz Suite No. 2, an error that was only recently corrected in the 2000s.
  • Movement seven, “Waltz II,” was famously used in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.1

Sources

  1. Harlow Robinson, “Waltz No. 2 from Suite No. 1 for Variety Orchestra,” Boston Symphony Orchestra, accessed September 16, 2025, https://www.bso.org/works/waltz-no-2-from-suite-no-1-for-variety-orchestra.

Cut IDs

16945 16943 27203 26521 21707 15279 19330