Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1

Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1
by Dmitri Shostakovich and Levon Atovmyan
Dmitri Shostakovich in 1958
Composed	after 1956
Duration	c. 20 minutes
Movements	8
Scoring	Pops orchestra
Premiere
Date	December 1, 1988
Location	Barbican Hall London, United Kingdom
Conductor	Mstislav Rostropovich
Performers	London Symphony Orchestra
Previously misidentified as "Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2"

The Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1 (Russian: Сюита для эстрадного оркестра № 1, romanized: Syuita dlya estradnogo orkestra nomer 1) is a suite in eight movements arranged by Levon Atovmyan [ru] after 1956, based on music by Dmitri Shostakovich.^[1] An editorial error in the tenth volume of the Shostakovich collected works edition published by Muzyka in 1984 resulted in the Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1 being misidentified as the "Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 2" or "Jazz Suite No. 2". The score was first published with the correct name in 2001.

Atovmyan, who arranged and assembled the suite, was a close friend of Shostakovich, and was regularly tasked with arranging concert suites of his film music. He also made numerous other transcriptions and arrangements, often without the composer's involvement and only his tacit approval. The Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1 includes arrangements of excerpts from Shostakovich's ballet, theatre, and film music. It has not been precisely dated, but is believed to have been composed after 1956.

The first documented performance took place on December 1, 1988, at the Barbican Hall, played by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly made a successful recording of the suite in 1991. In 1994, André Rieu released a recording of the suite's "Waltz II" that broke into the top 5 of the Dutch Mega Top 50 and sold over 50,000 copies. It was later included in the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.