Massenet: Le Cid - Ballet music

Most French operas from the middle of the 19-th century included ballets, as a lightweight intermezzo amidst the highly dramatic action of the opera. Jules Massenet was especially successful in the genre, and his ballet suites from his operas have surpassed the operas themselves in popularity. This CD contains the delightful and colourful suites from Le Cid,Thais and Cendrillon, evoking the atmosphere of the respective stories and fairytales of the operas.

Sir Neville Marriner and his Academy of St. Martin in the Fields perfectly capture the beauty, sensuality and drama of this immensely attractive music.

During the mid-19th century, it was traditional for all operas performed in Paris to have a ballet sequence inserted into one of their acts. One of the most prolific and celebrated opera composers of the era was Jules Massenet; this fantastic CD surveys ballet suites taken from three of his most popular works in the genre, all of which were written at the height of his career.

The release begins with one of Massenet’s most highly regarded compositions, the Le Cid suite of 1885. Based on the story of the Castilian nobleman Rodrigo, who was responsible for saving Spain through his defeat of the Moors, the work comprises a series of picturesque movements brimming with dance rhythms drawn from different regions, and is followed by the composer’s Cendrillon suite – a masterpiece of orchestral writing that draws its material principally from the Act 2 ball scene.

In the concluding suite, we move from Cendrillon’s fairy-tale enchantment to the spiritual Thaïs, which takes as its basis the tragic legend of a courtesanturned- saint and includes some of the French composer’s most sombre music. Although history has not taken kindly to all of Massenet’s operas, the suites heard here have remained enormously popular as concert pieces, testament to their quality and appeal. With Le Cid’s inventive use of percussion and Thaïs’s religious treatment of the organ, this collection abounds in colourful orchestration that recalls the grandeur of 19th-century Parisian opera. It’s an ideal purchase for the Romantic ballet connoisseur.

2012 is the centenary of Jules Massenet’s death. Several of his operas have received important revivals this year

Unlike most other Massenet albums released this year this 2CD set celebrates equally his orchestral music (now becoming familiar once again in the concert hall after several years of neglect) and his operas.

Although the performances were recorded in the mono era, the majority of vocal extracts stem from a golden period of French music-making (1910s-1930s) and the orchestral recordings have been rated by critics as sonically ahead of their time.

Singers include Edmond Clément, Ninon Vallin, Georges Thill, Emma Luart, Bidu Sayão, Marcel Journet, Fanny Heldy and Cesare Valletti in roles they made famous. Jean Fournet, Albert Wolff, Robert Irving and Sir Thomas Beecham conduct the works for orchestra.

For lovers of ballet music, this superb 5-disc set contains some of the greatest ballet music ever written. Tchaikovsky’s three great ballets – Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker – need no introduction.They contain not only some of the composer’s greatest music, but some of the most famous music ever composed.

Heard on this disc are the popular orchestral suites that have made Tchaikovsky’s ballet music a staple of the concert hall, from the enchanting theme from Swan Lake to the charming ‘Ouverture miniature’ and ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ from The Nutcracker.

Khachaturian’s two ballets have also become great orchestral favourites – the famous Adagio from Spartacus even entered the UK top 10 singles chart. Featured on the second disc of this set are excerpts from Spartacus and Gayaneh, including the fiery ‘Sabre Dance’, as well as Khachaturian’s incidental music for Mikhail Lermontov’s play Masquerade.

The graceful and charming ballet music of Léo Delibes is represented on the third disc, in suites from Sylvia and Coppélia, alongside the dances written to accompany Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse and two extremely popular songs from the opera Lakmé – the ‘Flower Duet’ and ‘Bell Song’. On the fourth disc, the ballet music from Adolphe Adam’s Giselle is featured, the dramatic story of death through dancing. The collection concludes with the ballets from Massenet’s operas Le Cid, Cendrillon and Thaïs. This captivating exploration of 19th- and 20thcentury ballet music, in which listeners will find popular favourites alongside new discoveries, is an ideal introduction to the world of ballet.