“The first all-new, entirely American three-act ballet. Both the score and the choreography are energetic, robust, warm, deliberately naïve (both ornery and innocent), in ways right for Twain. Mr. Yeston’s tuneful music, with sonorities and harmonies that recall Copland, Barber and Prokofiev, ranges easily from comic to sinister, from Muff Potter’s drunkenness to a rich celebration of the Mississippi River.”
– The New York Times


“Yeston’s score is a gorgeous piece of music saturated with Americana.”
– The Kansas City Star


“Wow! Tom Sawyer: A Ballet in Three Acts is an unequivocal delight – bold and varied and bursting with youthful energy, and featuring a musical score of great ingenuity by the Tony Award-winning Yeston. It features several quite memorable tunes that will ensure this piece a long life on the stage.”
– The Kansas City Independent

Tom Sawyer - A Ballet in Three Acts
Maury Yeston

PS Classics continues its collaboration with Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist Maury Yeston (Nine: The Musical, Titanic, Death Takes a Holiday) with the premiere recording of Yeston’s TOM SAWYER - A BALLET IN THREE ACTS, adapted from Mark Twain’s classic novel. Alastair Macaulay of The New York Times dubbed it "the first all-new, entirely American three-act ballet" and hailed the score as "energetic, robust, warm, deliberately naïve (both ornery and innocent) in ways right for Twain. Mr. Yeston’s tuneful music, with sonorities and harmonies that recall Copland, Barber and Prokofiev, ranges easily from comic to sinister, from Muff Potter’s drunkenness to a rich celebration of the Mississippi River." TOM SAWYER received its premiere performances in October, 2011 by the Kansas City Ballet and the Kansas Symphony, with direction and choreography by William Whitener. The Kansas City Star raved, "Yeston’s score is a gorgeous piece of music saturated with Americana," while the Kansas City Infozine concurred: "You almost expect George Gershwin to be nodding along in approval." Now, Martin West conducts the seventy-piece San Francisco Ballet Orchestra in this two-disc world premiere recording. TOM SAWYER - A BALLET IN THREE ACTS is a thrilling theatrical work, and a must-have for any lover of distinctly American music.

1. Overturette, The Fence
   
2. Way Down South
   
3. Tom and the Town
   
4. Lazy Day
   
5. Off to School
   
6. In the Classroom
   
7. Tom and Becky
   
8. Huck Finn
   
9. Looking West
   
10. Games and Competitions
    
11. To the Mississippi
    
12. Pirates
    
13. Storm
    
14. Funeral and Salvation, Coda
    

1. Muff Potter / Duet for Man and Flask
   
2. A Conspiracy
   
3. Dance of the Fireflies
   
4. March of the Goblins
   
5. Ghosts
   
6. The Sprites' Circus
   
7. The Stone Angel
   
8. A Murder
   
9. A Death
   
10. Requiem for Doc
11. Overture to Act 3, Looking West
    
12. The Missouri Main Street Parade
    
13. The Prosecution
    
14. Tom's Testimony
    
15. Praise and Thanks
    
16. Pinwheels
    
17. The Picnic
    
18. Lost in the Cave
    
19. Dance of True Love
    
20. Pinwheels (reprise)
    
21. Saved
    
22. To the Mississippi (reprise)
    
23. The Great Mississippi