Igor Stravinsky - Ballets – Ernest Ansermet, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

 

Release Date: 09/05/1994 Label: Decca Number of discs: 2 Composer: Igor Stravinsky Performer: Ernest Ansermet cd info/ buy

Review:

Ernest Ansermet's authority in the music of Stravinsky was unsurpassed: he had a close working relationship with the composer for a quarter of a century and was involved in the original productions of a number of his most significant works including The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, Petrushka, The Soldier's Tale, The Song of the Nightingale and Pulcinella. Ansermet's recordings, which were both meticulous and inspired, were the ones to have even after Stravinsky himself took up the baton. These are very early stereo recordings that were considered state of the art both artistically and sonically right through the LP era. Because The Firebird recording dates from 1955, Petrushka and Rite of Spring date from 1957, and Les Noces from 1961, one might think that the sound cannot compete with today's recording technology; however, that would be an inaccurate conclusion to draw. Decca's recordings were atmospheric but detailed, and pleasingly warm and rich, characteristics that have been maintained on these cd transfers.

 

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Delibes - Coppelia - Nagano, Orchestre de L'Opera de Lyon

 

Release Date: February 8, 1994 Label: Erato Number of discs: 2 Composer: Leo Delibes Performer: Kent Nagano cd info/ buy

Review:

The story of Coppélia explores a young man's passion for a beautiful girl who turns out to be a mechanical doll, exploring a popular mythological theme of creating a being who is more perfect and tantalizing than any human counterpart. There is definitely more to the score of Coppélia than what first meets the eye.  Kent Nagano brings out many of these subtleties in his consistent reading of Delibes' most loved ballet. His tempi are very convincing, and the playing of the Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon is first class. No. 14, the music for the Automata, is given virtuosic treatment. Listen to that flute playing!

 

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Ravel - Daphnis & Chloe - Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

 

Release Date: April 14, 1992 Label: Decca Japan Number of discs: 1 Composer: Maurice Ravel Performer: Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande cd info/ buy

Review:

An idiomatic sense of style and a very fine ear have kept these performances before an admiring public for more than four decades in some cases. Ernest Ansermet's Daphnis et Chloé remains one of Ansermet's (and the work's) great recordings. It has that "magical" atmosphere in abundance, and a gripping symphonic logic that carries the work off in a single impressive span. Ansermet correctly treats the chorus as an integrated, coloristic background, and not soloistically, and if the final Bacchanale doesn't have quite the lift of some other favorite versions (Munch or Boulez, say), the scene in the pirate's camp and the threatening apparition of Pan never have been done better. Finally, although the disc claims that Ansermet plays Ma Mère l'Oye complete, he actually uses his own version, which includes the Prélude and first dance from the complete ballet, followed by Ravel's five-movement suite in its original (non-ballet) order without the connecting material composed for the stage presentation. It's an effective concept, and like most of the performances on this excellently remastered CD, one that well withstands the test of time.--David Hurwitz

 

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Overtures and ballet music of the 19th century - Richard Bonynge

 

Release Date: 11/17/2000 Label: Decca Number of discs: 2 Composer:  Various Performer: Richard Bonynge cd info/ buy

Review:

Anyone interested in 19th century French music for the theatre will find this collection of overtures and ballet fragments indispensable. And if you're none too familiar with some of these works, or their composers, you'll discover some real treasures here, for this is a set worth savoring frequently and with delight. The finely-engineered recordings were made between 1965 and 1971, principally at Decca's former premiere London recording venue, the old Kingsway Hall, with the remainder coming from the Assembly Hall, Walthamstow. All were originally of high quality, and the newly digitized transfers present this entrancing music with unprecedented clarity and pin-point definition without compromising the credible orchestral perspectives that always characterized earlier Decca productions. These scintillating performances under Richard Bonynge for the most part remain unmatched in the catalog. There have been a number of broadly similar collections (including a memorable survey from Yan Pascal Tortelier and the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos), and although there are some significant oversights here (where for example are Auber's overtures to Le Cheval de bronze and Fra Diavolo?), these discs evidence Bonynge's skill at breathing new life into forgotten gems. Good old tub-thumpers like Ambroise Thomas' Mignon, Boieldieu's Le Calife de Bagdad, and Hérold's Zampa will still be reasonably familiar to most, but these performances are so convincing that you'll wonder why they're omitted from today's supposedly more "intellectual" concert bills. And then there are the real rarities, wonderful chunks of gorgeous orchestral kitsch like Wallace's Maritana, Planquette's Les Cloches de Corneville, and Les Dragons de Villars by Maillart. They're all vivid examples of a populist genre that simply had its day; but allowing that, when did you last hear even a Suppé overture "live"? The first eight tracks on CD 1 feature the New Philharmonia Orchestra, with the balance of works included on this Double Decca set entrusted to the London Symphony. It would be hard to imagine this thoroughly enjoyable music being either better played or recorded. Superb!--Michael Jameson

 

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Minkus - La Bayadere - Bonynge, English Chamber Orchestra

La Bayadère (The Temple Dancer) is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by the Ballet Master Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. It was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 4, 1877.

Ludwig Minkus is generally regarded as a minor composer who turned out ballet scores on demand. La Bayadere shows that Minkus must have had at least a touch of genius for it is a truly beautiful work. On this 2-CD set the great ballet conductor, Richard Bonynge, gives a performance which displays all of this undeservedly-obscure ballet's beauty and appeal. The armchair listener can admire spirited playing by the orchestra, sensitive violin solos by Donald Hazelwood and the vivid recording quality.

I just surrendered, listened and let the music weave its own enchantment right down to the last moments...

CD INFO

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Prokofiev - Romeo And Juliet - Previn, London SO

 

 

The interpreter of Romeo and Juliet must be conscious of the deeper, more passionate expression--both brutal and tender--behind the brilliance of Prokofiev's score. He must also have a feeling for the dance, for as symphonic as this music is, its soul is rhythm. André Previn's 1973 reading with the London Symphony is warm, sensitive, and gorgeously played: here is a man who clearly knows something about love. The character of individual scenes is well caught, particularly that of the balcony scene. There is humor in the phrasing, and the tempos are indeed eminently danceable. Most appealing of all, the whole affair has a seductive ardor that can be felt in the treatment of even the smallest details. --Ted Libbey

CD INFO

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Adam, Adolphe – Giselle (Ballet) - Bonynge, Orchestra of the ROHCV

Richard Bonynge elicits mixed feelings as a conductor. There have been many criticisms of his technique, not without justification. Nevertheless, he is a fine musician who knows his scores and how he wants them to sound. He achieves fine results when paired with an orchestra sympathetic to his aims. His many fine ballet recordings, of which this Giselle is one, have been great additions to the catalog. He has said that Adolphe Adam is his favorite composer, and this recording bespeaks great affection on Bonynge's part. It is uncut, the first time I have heard the score this way, plus with a few common interpolations by other composers. The orchestra (Royal Opera House Orchestra Covent Garden) plays with tenderness or gusto as required. The early digital 1986 sound engineering holds up pretty well, with good detail and dynamic range, and with only a touch of steeliness to the violins. Because of the Urtext attributes of this recording, it would be very hard to recommend another in its place. As good as some of the highlights recordings are of Giselle, the full score really demands to be heard, especially in such a fine performance. --David Seaman

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Gliere, Reinhold - The Red Poppy (Ballet) - St. Petersburg SO 2CD

Gliere's music sounds like it was written at least half a century earlier than it actually was. A composer who lived until mid-century, you'd never guess that he wasn't a contemporary of Tchaikovsky. His ballet music has the same Romantic sheen to it, with sweeping violin melodies and characterful individual dances. What he lacks is Tchaikovsky's sense of symphonic continuity, but his sense of dramatic timing seems to have been spot on, at least as far as this work is concerned. The only part of it that's at all well known is the "Russian Sailors' Dance," but there's lots more besides that's every bit as entertaining, so all credit to Naxos for giving us the complete work in such a fine performance at budget price. --David Hurwitz

The ballet takes place at a seaport in 1920s-era Kuomintang  China. A ship carrying sailors from many lands, including Russia is docked in a Chinese seaport. The captain notices a group of half-starved, overworked Coolies  being brutally driven to work even harder by their cruel harbormaster. One night while dancing for the sailors aboard the ship, the beautiful Tao-Hoa (Pinyin: Taohua) notices a Russian captain trying to rescue the poor Coolies from the port commander. Impressed by the captain's act of kindness she gives him a red poppy  as a symbol of her love. When Tao's employer, Li Shan-Fu learns of this, he is jealous and orders her to kill the captain. She refuses, sacrifices her life for the captain's, and is later killed by her employer when a riot breaks out on the dock. As she dies, she gives another red poppy flower to a young Chinese girl as a sign of love and freedom.

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Tchaikovsky - Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty) - Antal Dorati

Tchaikovsky - Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty) - Antal Dorati
Ballet | Eac, flac, cue | log, cover | 2 CD, 711 MB
June 13, 1995 | Philips | RapidShare

To ballet lovers and music lovers alike, this is the only Sleeping Beauty score to get.

For those fans of the incredible living art of ballet, this Cd is a remarkable treat. Although nothing beats a live performance, or one captured on film, the score to a ballet is just as enjoyable and as uplifting to hear. Antal Dorati (conductor of the Monte Carlo Ballet, symphonic conductor post World War II- 50's, 60's) began his career in the 30's. A perfectionist, a master, he is everything the great Maestro Toscanini was to the conducting podium. Dorati has conducted Sleeping Beauty many times, in Monte Carlo and in Detroit. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a European orchestra that Dorati worked with toward the end of his life.

In this recording, the European elegance of the ballet is marvelously captured- the perfect detail on the strings, the sheer symphonic treatment and coloration of each individual instrument, and it is without a question THE MOST COMPLETE SLEEPING BEAUTY, omitting no musical piece that Tchaikovsky composed for his second ballet. Swan Lake's premiere was a failure and to make up for it, so to speak, Tchaikovsky worked on an even greater ballet. Sleeping Beauty is much more than a fairy tale ballet, far more complex than a child's fantasy about a princess under an evil spell and a handsome prince who awakens her with a kiss. Only when you deconstruct the ballet's music do we realize that Tchaikovsky had written something serious, something greater than himself. It is the greatest achievement of his career.

The opening theme is that of the evil fairy, dark, fatalistic, slightly bordering on neurotic Wagnerian-style conflict; but Tchaikovsky minimized Wagnerian themes and did not lavish the ballet with too much darkness as he did in Swan Lake. Although Tchaikovsky genuinely disliked Wagner, the argument can be made that some Wagnerian motifs were in mind when he composed music for his ballet heroes and heroines. The evil fairy's theme is the exact opposite of the Lilac Fairy's theme- it is her theme that brings hope. A melodic, uplifting, beautiful work for strings, the Lilac Fairy's theme appears time and again in the first two acts, reminding us that no matter the apparent success of the evil fairy's spell, the princess Aurora will be awakened by true love's kiss. Act I and III has perhaps the most striking pieces. A March is used in Act I, as the guests arrive at the christening of the newborn princess, a march that was featured in Disney's animated version of Sleeping Beauty. The evil fairy's music is further developed as she casts the dark enchantment on the princess, she is surrounded by nasty rats and foul magic, and in her moment of triumph, she seems to be laughing, laughing cynically with the violin strings. Her music is dissonant, powerful but always, always, calmed by the Lilac's Fairy theme.

The waltzes, which are more than one on the ballet, abound with lilting, sugar-coated melodies. The most famous is of course the music Disney used for the song in Sleeping Beauty "Once Upon A Dream", but the other waltzes are full of nationalistic flavors, some sounding Spanish, others nearly Viennese in which one expects Strauss to make an appearance. This same kind of sentimentality on orchestra is evident in the bouncy themes that Disney used for the three fairies who aid Aurora in her darkest hours.

The Prince's hunt is a delightful work for dance ensembles, and his Vision of Aurora in Act 2 is a virtuouso moment for the cellist. The Panorama is upbeat, soulful and touched by the perfect elegance, Russian fire dominates the grander moments, such as the Polacca, the Adagio and Entree in Act 3. The Sarabande has an English feel to it, a chamber music piece, and one begins to realize upon listening to it, that Tchaikovsky's individual divertiseements and melodies are as if different gems in a single chain of jewels. The most striking music Tchaikovsky ever composed is to be found here - the Apotheose. Ending the ballet, Tchaikovsky outdid himself, borrowing a theme from an old French hymn, orchestrating the fanfare with grandeur, the dark, fiery strings reach stratospheric, divine, cosmic heights and one can only listen with humility. What was Tchaikovsky thinking when he composed so beautiful a dream ? To ballet lovers and music lovers alike, this is the only Sleeping Beauty score to get.

CD Content

The Sleeping Beauty, ballet, Op. 66
Composed by Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky
Performed by Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam
with Theo Olof, Jean Decroos
Conducted by Antal Dorati

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (excerpts) - Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (excerpts) - Ormandy,
Philadelphia Orchestra
Ballet | Eac, flac, cue | log, cover | 1 CD, 376 MB
April 5, 1991 | Sony | RapidShare

I cannot remember ever enjoying a Swan Lake record so much before. This is dazzling playing of the kind traditionally associated with Philadelphia. After their disappointing showing in two recent Tchaikovsky discs I was apprehensive, but the superb panache of the opening of Act 1 bowled me over, and each of the bravura numbers had just the same impact-the Danse espagnole, the Mazurka, the outrageous can-can of the Pas de deux variation. But this is far more than a slick professional job. Ormandy has judged the degree of rubato in the slow numbers very finely: with a less rich-toned orchestra than this more rubato could have been allowed, but as it is soupiness is completely avoided, I think of the violins playing of the opening of the Act 3 Pas de deux with an ecstatic little portamento up to the new phrase, perfectly judged. The melancholy, very Russian melody of the Dance of the Little Swans, too, has the most natural phrasing from the woodwind. Maybe some will want a less high-powered approach than this, but I never find it out of scale. This is highly recommended, particularly for those who have ever been jaded with this score. The choice of numbers could hardly be better : and the recording, both rich and brilliant, is particularly expansive in the stereo version.--Gramophone

CD Content

Swan Lake Suite: Act 1-Scene; Valse (corps de ballet); Pas de trois. Act 2-Scene; Scene; Danses des petits cygnes-Coda. Act 3-Danse espagnole; Dane hongroisc (Czardas); Mazurka; Pas de deux (Variation 1, Coda). Act 4-Danses des petits cygnes; Scene finale.

Meyerbeer - The Skater's
Adams - Giselle

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake & Sleeping Beauty Suites - Muti, Philadelphia Orchestra

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake & Sleeping Beauty Suites - Muti, Philadelphia Orchestra
Ballet | Eac, flac, cue | log, cover | 1 CD, 216 MB
1984 | EMI | RapidShare

Swan Lake (Russian: Лебединое Озеро, Lebedinoye Ozero) is a ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, by Vladimir Begichev and Vasiliy Geltser was fashioned from Russian folk tales as well as an ancient German legend, which tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger. The ballet received its premiere on February 27, 1877, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as The Lake of the Swans. Although it is presented in many different versions, most ballet companies base their stagings both choreographically and musically on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on January 15, 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. For this revival, Tchaikovsky's score was revised by the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre's chief conductor and composer Riccardo Drigo.


CD Content

Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (Ballet)

Tchaikovsky - Sleeping Beauty (Ballet)

Stravinsky - Pulcinella - Berganza, Abbado,London SO

Stravinsky - Pulcinella - Berganza, Abbado,London SO
Ballet | Eac, flac, cue | log, cover | 1 CD, 242 MB
October 25, 1990 | Polygram | RapidShare

Igor Stravinsky supposedly based his Pulcinella on musical fragments of 18th century Italian composers Pergolesi, Gallo, Chelleri and Parisotti but there may be a higher degree of the Russian composer in the music than the Italians. The ballet scenario was based a mysterious manuscript that Serge Diaghilev found in Naples and the work was first performed in 1920. This performance is of the revised score of 1947. Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony turn in a vigorous performance with generally fast tempos. The soloists are superb: Teresa Berganza, Ryland Davies and John Shirley-Quirk; each brings a good deal of warmth and personality to their singing and it would be hard to find a better ensemble. The Largo and Tempo di minuetto (Trio) are especially well sung. The well-known Vivo section with the distinctive brass fanfare is especially well played. Overall, this performance of Pulcinella has a great deal of personality that should not be missed.

The performance of Jeu de cartes is also very spirited and well-balanced with excellent dynamics. The quiet passages are well-phrased and the difficult rhythms are handled with ease. The recording is clear and balanced and at mid-price this disc is irresistible.--Amazon


Cd Content

Stravinsky - Pulcinella
Stravinsky - Jeu de Cartes

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