Following her graduation from the St Petersburg Conservatoire Kashperova became personally acquainted with the poet Yakov Polonsky and often attended his literary gatherings. When he died in 1898 Kashperova responded with this setting of one of his most celebrated ballads, for the benefit of the memorial fund created to support the poet's widow and family. Here is a vivid musical dramatisation of the old proverb 'Pride comes before a fall' quite literally a fall in the case of the haughty eagle who is deceived by the wily snake into displaying his arrogance once too often. Kashperova's music is full of vivid musical depiction, from the serpent slithering over the granite to the crashes of thunder and lightning as both bird and reptile fly high above the mountaintops, with disastrous consequences. - the publisher
#female composer