The Petite Suite is a suite of seven piano pieces, written by Alexander Borodin

Alexander Borodin

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...

, and acknowledged as his major work for the piano. It was published in 1885, although some of the pieces had been written as far back as the late 1870s. After Borodin's death, Alexander Glazunov

Alexander Glazunov

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...

 orchestrated the work, and added his orchestration of another of Borodin's pieces as an eighth number.

The suite was dedicated to the Belgian Countess Louise de Mercy-Argenteau

Marie-Clotilde-Elisabeth Louise de Riquet, comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau

Marie-Clotilde-Elisabeth Louise de Riquet was the elder daughter of Michel Gabriel Alphonse Ferdinand de Riquet , created prince de Chimay 1834, for himself only, and Rosalie de Riquet de Caraman...

, who had been instrumental in having Borodin's First Symphony performed in Verviers

Verviers

Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...

 and Liège

Liège

Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....

. She had also arranged for French translations of some of his songs and excerpts from Prince Igor

Prince Igor

Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...

; and had initiated the sponsorship of Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...

 and Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray

Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray

Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray was a French Breton composer, pianist, and professor of music history/theory at the Conservatoire de Paris as well as a Prix de Rome laureate. He was born at Nantes and died at Vernouillet, near Dreux...

 for Borodin's membership of the French Society of Authors, Composers and Editors.

Borodin's original title for the work was Petit Poème d'amour d'une jeune fille ("Little poems on the love of a young girl"), but by publication time the name Petite Suite had been applied to it.

The original suite consisted of the following 7 movements, with descriptions supplied by the composer:

1. Au couvent, Andante religioso, C sharp minor ("The Church's vows foster thoughts only of God")
2. Intermezzo, Tempo di minuetto, F major ("Dreaming of Society Life")
3. Mazurka I, Allegro, C major ("Thinking only of dancing")
4. Mazurka II, Allegretto, D flat major ("Thinking both of the dance and the dancer")
5. Rêverie, Andante, D flat major ("Thinking only of the dance")
6. Serenade, Allegretto, D flat major ("Dreaming of love")
7. Nocturne, Andantino, G flat major ("Lulled by the happiness of being in love”).

After Borodin's death in 1887, Alexander Glazunov

Alexander Glazunov

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...

 orchestrated the suite, but incorporated into it another piano piece by Borodin, the Scherzo in A flat major

Scherzo in A-flat major (Borodin)

Alexander Borodin's Scherzo in A-flat major is a lively piece written in 1885, while Borodin was in Belgium for an early performance of his then incomplete opera Prince Igor. It was originally written for solo piano but in 1889 Alexander Glazunov orchestrated it, along with the Petite Suite...

, and slightly rearranged the order of the pieces.

1. Au couvent
2. Intermezzo
3. Mazurka I
4. Mazurka II
5. Serenade
6. Nocturne
7. Rêverie
8. Scherzo, Allegro vivace, A flat major