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Of his many works for the stage, Adolphe Adam’s ballet Giselle ou Les Wilis is the best known. The story is based on a legend in which the Wilis, or ghosts of unmarried girls, seek revenge on the living. Speedily written amidst a hotbed of Parisian infatuations and given a timeless parochial setting, this archetypal romantic ballet has everything from unrequited love to deceit, drama, tragedy, and conciliatory resolution. Andrew Mogrelia has been acclaimed for conducting of ‘warmth, grace and vitality’. (The Penguin Guide on Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty 8550490-92)

Ballet was born from the late Renaissance movement in Europe, combining the classical skills of music, dance and drama. Its origins can be traced back to the dance traditions of the nobility in the French and Italian courts of the fifteenth century. The creation of classical ballet as we know it was developed under the auspices of Louis XIV, and was then further refined in France and Russia in the nineteenth century into the hugely influential and highly skilled concert dance form with which we are familiar today.

Fittingly this collection starts in France, with one of the most haunting and memorable examples of the ballet form: Adam’s Giselle. We are then swept along in a whirlwind tour of some of the greatest Russian ballets by such great composers as Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Shostakovich, while no ballet anthology would be complete without Tchaikovsky’s three Romantic masterpieces Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. From Delibes to Stravinsky, this collection amply demonstrates why ballet remains one of the most loved musical genres.