Unsung Ballet Music

[saffron]

Hi everyone! Quite recently I was going through my extensive vinyl collection and came across a recording of Lalo's Namouna ballet music (Suisse Romande/Ansermet) I had not played for quite some years. I quite realise that Lalo is not an unsung composer as such, but I had quite forgotten what a wonderful score it is - full of memorable tunes - and particularly 'La Sieste'. The Ansermet recording omitted quite a lot of the music though, more of which is now available on CD.

Anyway, my reason for posting is to ask you knowledgeable folk for any suggestions of less familiar ballet music by unsung composers of a similar style/quality - although it doesn't have to be specifically for the ballet. Thank you in anticipation...

[Alan Howe]

With reasons, please. Unaccompanied lists are very boring and will be deleted!

[mjmosca]

Recently, I have been listening to an absolutely delightful comic ballet- Saint-Saens' "Javotte" which is a La Fille mal Gardee story. The themes are irresitable, and the characters spring to life right from the start. The recording [I think there is only one of the complete ballet: Andrew Mogrelia leading the Queensland Orchestra,] is very good, though perhaps warmer colors from the orchestra would be welcome. This is Saint-Saens' only full length ballet, and has all of the freshness and engagement one expects from this master. Highly recommended. By the way, Saint-Saens was a friend and admirer of Lalo.

[adriano]

Namouna: Again, as in a similar thread of years ago (in which, as I remember, Alan also expressed some of his rather negative opinions on ballet music), I take up again in defending "Namouna".
More important than Ansermet's recording is David Robertson's CD (Valois, 1996), containing a total of 16 cues (TT: 56 minutes). But already in 1972, Jean Martinon had recorded (on DGG) the two "Rhapsodies" (or Suites). Yondani Butt recorded them on ASV in 1998.
Due to a sudden brain congestion, Lalo had become unable to complete the orchestration of "Namouna", therefore Gounod (to whom the score is dedicated) intervened. But already Lalo's orchestrated pieces are superbly written.
Publisher Sikorski offers an apparently complete score with hire material (duration 85 minutes). One of my earliest Marco Polo dreams had been to record a complete "Namouna" on CD, but at that time, the complete score wasn't available yet. The piano reduction is also available at ISMLP.
Chabrier and D'Indy particularly appreciated this ballet. And it was Debussy, who said that "amongst too many stupid ballets, there is a sort of masterpiece: Namouna. It's very sad that no one talks about it anymore, it's also a sad circumstance in music [history]."
This music is very valuable and original - as already the Suites/Rhapsodies (arranged by the composer) reveal. The extended liner notes (by a musicologist and by the conductor) to the mentioned Valois CD are very informative.

[TerraEpon]

A great place to start is the 9CD set called 'Music to the Bournonville Ballets' on Danacord of which the only even moderately sung piece is Herman Severin Lovenskiold's La Sylphide (which is reletively well known in ballet circles). All Danish composers (Gade, Lumbye, JPE Hartmann and others).

Another that pops off the top of my head if Josef Bayer's The Fairy Doll -- Bayer being the same composer who completed Johann Strauss Jr.'s only ballet, Aschenbrodel.

[alberto]

Les Deux Pigeons (1886) by André Messager has since many years appeared to me unique in XIX French Ballet field for qualities of excitement, tunefulness, refinement. I appreciate especially the recording of the suite conducted by Chatles Mackerras. A little less the complete versions by Richard Bonynge (Decca) and John Lanchbery (Emi).

[Christopher]

Myhaylo Skorulsky's "Forest Song" which is in the downloads section - if you like the music of Tchaikovsky with hints of very early Khachaturian.  Very much in the "fairy-ballet" genre. The adagio near the end, for violin and orchestra, is something of a concert piece in Ukraine (Skorulsky's home country).

The "official" recording of suites from the ballet (ie, from a long-out of print Melodiya LP that had a very restricted print run in 1971), is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFsBTJuhtsE&t=37s

The best version of the adagio, in my view, is the one here - http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6035.msg67808.html#msg67808

[saffron]

I just wanted to say thank you to the kind folk on here who responded to my post. Some of the suggestions I already had in my library, but the 9 CD set suggested by TerraEpon will keep me going for quite a while!  Also, Saint-Saens "Javotte" was completely new to me - thanks to mjmosca. Also thanks for the information re. Namouna and Lalo supplied by hadrianus - you are certainly a knowledgeable lot! And not least, Christopher's suggestion of Skorulsky's "Forest Tale" was another delightful 'find'.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I've come a bit late to this thread, but I would like to suggest you try Joseph Holbrooke's "Aucassin et Nicolette" (available on Dutton Epoch, with the Saxophone Concerto). This was very popular in its day - one of Holbrooke's "hits" - and I think it is charming, and, as always with Holbrooke, skilfully orchestrated.

[adriano]

@ saffron: merci beaucoup :-)

You may perhaps not know that in 1991 I have recorded 3 less-known ballets by Ottorino Respighi, which are absolutely charming and valuable (world premier recordings). I particularly like "La pentola magica"; it has been recorded again in 2003 on Chandos by Gianandrea Noseda. In this ballet, Respighi re-orchestrated (among other Russian pieces) Rubinstein's "Dance of the Tartar Bowmen" in a largely superior way than the composer did!

[saffron]

Thank you Hadrianus! I have the Marco Polo CD that you mention in my library and I will retrieve it for further listening. One of the problems of having an extensive library (almost 60 years of collecting), is that having so much material you sometimes miss gems that for one reason or another got passed over. I suspect it is a common enough problem for many folk here. Anyway, thank you for reminding me! Respighi was an early favourite of mine in the days of vinyl - I virtually wore out the Pines.. 

[adriano]

... and then, there is the big Respighi ballet "Belkis, regina di Saba" (with his exciting suite). It was premiered at the Scala, coupled with Massenet's "Werther" (!!!) in 1932. Marco Polo never allowed my to record its complete version, which also requires a mezzo-sporano a choir and a narrator. In 2012 it was produced by the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Gabriel Feltz) in a disappointing (German translated) semi-concert version in which the narrator had to be a woman (the original requires a priest-like older man), which was talking (too many) additional texts over the music - and the music too had been altered. The whole is available on DVD.

[saffron]

Thank you again Hadrianus.. Your knowledge of these works is just awesome! 

I have Belkis as well (on Chandos). There just aren't enough hours in the day to listen to all this wonderful music - and eat, sleep etc. as well

[TerraEpon]

A complete Belkis (maybe without narrator x.x) is one of my most wanted things to be recorded.

[adriano]

Dont'say that, TerraEpon!
"Belki's" narrator's part can be reduced to but a few interventions. I had arranged this myself already at the time I proposed this work to Marco Polo (in 1992, after having recorded "La Primavera"). Marco Polo refused since they were afraid I could not manage with this large orchestra formation. They did not even check that it is not larger than "La Primavera's" (except as far as the percussion section and 3 extra brass instruments are concerned, but "La Primavera" requires a 4-hand piano part in the orchestra and the double of chorus singers!) - and much easier to conduct! And "La Primavera" also requires 6 solo singers...
Some of those narrator's comments have to be respected, since they occur in place, where note's or empty bar's holds appear. Without them, the music makes less sense. But I am convinced that most of those texts are but stage direction notes just describing the action (which happens on stage anyway, so why describe it?). Anyway, in many passages they are too long to be recited alongside the music: some are over 100 words long and are set over 5 bars! The texts which occur over loud tutti and chorus sections, must be ignored in any case, otherwise the narrator would have to scream them out like hell. Funny that no musicologist has ever considered this case. Incidentally, the orchestration of "Belkis" also includes a wind machine (à la Ravel) and a gorgeous array of percussion instruments.