# The Joy of Ballet!



## BurningDesire

I looooove ballet, and didn't see any other threads discussing ballet music, so here we go~ 

Many of my favorite compositions are ballets, or shorter dance pieces (or pieces in the style of a dance that may or may not be danced to). My faves would include The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky, The Seasons by John Cage, and The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. What ballets do you guys like? Has anybody had the fortune of seeing on performed live? What are your favorites? I've only seen The Nutcracker, and a performance by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company which featured two John Cage selections.

On a side note, if you love ballet and especially Romantic music, and you also like great stories, I must recommend the anime Princess Tutu, which is a wonderful light dramatic series in 26 episodes that features a music score of primarily 19th Century music (including Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Chopin, Wagner, Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Prokofiev), especially music from ballets. The story and use of music is perfect, and all adds to a beautiful series.


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## Sonata

I do really enjoy ballet music, though I've not listened to a lot of the repoirtoire yet. I love Swan Lake and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, though the former has a little too much brass towards the end for my tastes. I really do enjoy the Nutcracker as well. 

In my to be listened to pile, I have Sleeping Beauty. Down the road, I intend to listen to Stravinsky's major ballets, Prokofiev's Cinderella, and Giselle. Delibes and Manon are also possibilities.

That anime sounds interesting. If I have the chance I may check it out.


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## BurningDesire

Swan Lake and Romeo & Juliet are both brilliant too  Stravinsky wrote a ton of ballets X3 and all the ones I've heard, from The Firebird and Petruschka to Pulcinella and The Fairy's Kiss, to Agon are beautiful, brilliant ballets, and if you like his, I highly recommend Cage's The Seasons. Its actually a very accessible Cage piece, with very gorgeous orchestration.

Also, Princess Tutu is up on Youtube, free and legal to watch. (There's a whole episode referencing the plot of Adam's Giselle, and using music from it during a climactic scene, and music by Delibes appears throughout the series).


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## Sonata

Awesome! Thanks for the info.


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## Toddlertoddy

Nijinsky's and Pina Bausch's interpretations of the Rite of Spring. I personally like Nijinsky more because I think it fits the music better than Bausch. However, I like the beginning (which Nijinsky leaves out) of Bausch's.

Other music:

Stravinsky: Petrushka
Stravinsky: The Firebird
Stravinsky: Pulcinella
Stravinsky: Agon
Stravinsky: Apollo
Stravinsky: The Fairy's Kiss
Stravinsky: Jeu de cartes
Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin
Bartok: The Wooden Prince
Debussy: Jeux
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Toddlertoddy said:


> Nijinsky's and Pina Bausch's interpretations of the Rite of Spring. I personally like Nijinsky more because I think it fits the music better than Bausch. However, I like the beginning (which Nijinsky leaves out) of Bausch's.
> 
> Other music:
> 
> Stravinsky: Petrushka
> Stravinsky: The Firebird
> Stravinsky: Pulcinella
> Stravinsky: Agon
> Stravinsky: Apollo
> Stravinsky: The Fairy's Kiss
> Stravinsky: Jeu de cartes
> Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin
> Bartok: The Wooden Prince
> Debussy: Jeux
> Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe


Ditto. But most ballets before Stravinsky (other than French baroque) are so incredibly boring IMO.


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## elgar's ghost

I like Shostakovich's 'The Golden Age' - written in 1929-30 just prior to the time when cultural figures like Mandelstam, Meyerhold, Akhmatova and Shostakovich himself fell foul of Uncle Joe in the early 30s. It's also the only ballet I can think of where there are two different plots but using the same music - the first concerned a Soviet football team on tour in the West and digs at the bourgeoisie were represented by western dance music that was popular at the time - the foxtrot, tango and shimmy - thus giving it a contemporary feel. Then, after Shostakovich's death, a new plot was written about low-life in an unspecified Soviet town/city (in this case 'The Golden Age' is the name of a nightspot).


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## Sonata

Toddlertoddy said:


> Nijinsky's and Pina Bausch's interpretations of the Rite of Spring. I personally like Nijinsky more because I think it fits the music better than Bausch. However, I like the beginning (which Nijinsky leaves out) of Bausch's.
> 
> Other music:
> 
> Stravinsky: Petrushka
> Stravinsky: The Firebird
> Stravinsky: Pulcinella
> Stravinsky: Agon
> Stravinsky: Apollo
> Stravinsky: The Fairy's Kiss
> Stravinsky: Jeu de cartes
> Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin
> Bartok: The Wooden Prince
> Debussy: Jeux
> *Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe*


How did I forget Daphnis Et Chloe in my original response? Daphnis Et Chloe is an awesome piece of music.


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## StlukesguildOhio

...most ballets before Stravinsky (other than French baroque) are so incredibly boring IMO.

And as usual... your opinion is WRONG!


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## Manxfeeder

I'd like to see Satie's Parade sometime before I die. It's probably not going to happen, either.


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## BurningDesire

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Ditto. But most ballets before Stravinsky (other than French baroque) are so *incredibly boring* IMO.


Thats a weird way of spelling "inspired genius"


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## Lenfer

I love ballet, I had trained to become a dancer until I shattered my ankle after that I couldn't continue. I have lots of ballet on DVD and *Blu-ray* and will write up a list of my favorites once I've finished what I'm doing.  I have seen ballet in person in fact I go as often as I can often go several times to the same production on different nights.


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## Lenfer

StlukesguildOhio said:


> ...most ballets before Stravinsky (other than French baroque) are so incredibly boring IMO.
> 
> And as usual... your opinion is WRONG!


I have to agree with you that I disagree quite strongly with *CoAG* on ballet however that is his opinion and I'm not sure one's opinion can be wrong. Even if it is written in large font, emboldened and underlined.


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## MaestroViolinist

I love ballet and ballet music! Though (dare I say it?) Swan Lake is overrated, they play it way too much. 

The Nutcracker is wonderful! Probably my favourite. Sadly I haven't seen that performed live, but I've seen a couple of others on stage.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

MaestroViolinist said:


> I love ballet and ballet music! Though (dare I say it?) Swan Lake is overrated, they play it way too much.
> 
> The Nutcracker is wonderful! Probably my favourite. Sadly I haven't seen that performed live, but I've seen a couple of others on stage.


Swan Lake is overrated, I agree.

I forgot to mention my favourite ballet, Satie's _Relâche._


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## BurningDesire

Lenfer said:


> I love ballet, I had trained to become a dancer until I shattered my ankle after that I couldn't continue. I have lots of ballet on DVD and *Blu-ray* and will write up a list of my favorites once I've finished what I'm doing.  I have seen ballet in person in fact I go as often as I can often go several times to the same production on different nights.


I'm really sorry about your ankle. I really wish that I could dance like that myself.


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## Sonata

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Swan Lake is overrated, I agree.
> 
> I forgot to mention my favourite ballet, Satie's _Relâche._


I've been wanting to check out Satie at some point. Into the wishlist!


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## BurningDesire

Another beautiful ballet that you might not have heard before~

La Sylphide, by Herman Løvenskiold. Considered the first Romantic ballet, its beautiful and ranges from light-hearted and gentle to pretty heavy and dark, like much of Tchaikovsky.

I looked for a long time to find a truly good recording of this obscure gem, and I at last found one, packed in as a bonus on yet another recording of The Nutcracker:









The performance and sound quality on this recording are magnificent ^_^ Also, I bought this recording just for La Sylphide, but the recording of The Nutcracker is just as well recorded and performed. It is actually my favorite recording of The Nutcracker that I own (except for the Pas de Deux), and it really is just a spectacular rendition of the piece, very exciting performances 

(btw, Lovenskiold's masterpiece seems to be very neglected, this is one of only 2 recordings I could find commercially available. I actually first heard the music because parts of the ballet are featured in an episode of Princess Tutu)


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## PlaySalieri

My only beef with ballet is that Mozart never really composed one.


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## BurningDesire

stomanek said:


> My only beef with ballet is that Mozart never really composed one.


D: OH! The Tragedy!


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## Sonata

That would be your beef with Mozart and his employers then


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## Sonata

Sorry to double post. But I'm listening to Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet for the second time and it really is a great work!!


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## Lenfer

BurningDesire said:


> I'm really sorry about your ankle. I really wish that I could dance like that myself.


Thank you but it was a long time ago and I was young, now it does not bother me so much. Although I'd still love to dance I can dance for a short while - alone with the cat - just not for long. What's really important is that I manged to keep the figure. :tiphat:


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## BurningDesire

Lenfer said:


> Thank you but it was a long time ago and I was young, now it does not bother me so much. Although I'd still love to dance I can dance for a short while - alone with the cat - just not for long. What's really important is that I manged to keep the figure. :tiphat:


Maybe I can write a brief ballet for you :3


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## Bas

Hmmm, that is not a genre I'm very familiar with. And the familiairity that I do have is for the musical part only (I absolutely do not have any knowledge about the dances), does anyone of you have? And do you balletlovers view the music apart from the dance or?


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## BurningDesire

Bas said:


> Hmmm, that is not a genre I'm very familiar with. And the familiairity that I do have is for the musical part only (I absolutely do not have any knowledge about the dances), does anyone of you have? And do you balletlovers view the music apart from the dance or?


I confess I'm not terribly versed in dance, though I know some of the terms. I love it both ways. I love the music and I love the dance and I love them combined and separate.


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## Crudblud

I really can't stand the Nutcracker, but Tchaikovsky's other efforts in ballet are magnificent, and I never get bored with them.

A ballet score I'd like to recommend to one and all is Alfred Schnittke's take on Peer Gynt. It is a typically bizarre and dark score with Schnittke's usual trappings of odd juxtapositions of form, period style and instrumentation, and it is glorious. It also contains some of his most intense moments, I feel.

Also, if you can track it down, the complete version of Frank Zappa's Sinister Footwear is a programmatic stage piece with dancers and puppets. Sadly there does not seem to be any extant video footage of its fully staged performance under Kent Nagano, which is also the only time all 25 minutes were played and recorded.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

What my problem is I can't see how it is enjoyable actually watching a ballet. Watching dancers on stage doesn't appeal to me or entertain me. The music is what I enjoy.


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## BurningDesire

Crudblud said:


> I really can't stand the Nutcracker, but Tchaikovsky's other efforts in ballet are magnificent, and I never get bored with them.
> 
> A ballet score I'd like to recommend to one and all is Alfred Schnittke's take on Peer Gynt. It is a typically bizarre and dark score with Schnittke's usual trappings of odd juxtapositions of form, period style and instrumentation, and it is glorious. It also contains some of his most intense moments, I feel.
> 
> Also, if you can track it down, the complete version of Frank Zappa's Sinister Footwear is a programmatic stage piece with dancers and puppets. Sadly there does not seem to be any extant video footage of its fully staged performance under Kent Nagano, which is also the only time all 25 minutes were played and recorded.


I must hear Schittke's Peer Gynt. I love that man <3 Also, I've noticed that many of Zappa's works are meant to be ballets, or have been treated as so, Mo N' Herb's Vacation, Lumpy Gravy, Bob in Dacron, the orchestral version of G-Spot Tornado as performed by Ensemble Modern.  I think thats Stravinsky's influence at work.


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## BurningDesire

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> What my problem is I can't see how it is enjoyable actually watching a ballet. Watching dancers on stage doesn't appeal to me or entertain me. The music is what I enjoy.


The music is most important to me too, but the dancing can be so beautiful too  Whether its the grace of Romantic ballet, or the brutality of something like the Rite of Spring. Even various other sorts of dance, like waltzes, or swing, or flamenco or tango can be very beautiful. ^^


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## Crudblud

BurningDesire said:


> I must hear Schittke's Peer Gynt.


The only recording I know of is Eri Klas conducting the Stockholm Royal Opera Orchestra on Bis, vol. 10 of their Schnittke Edition. Get to it.


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## MaestroViolinist

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> What my problem is I can't see how it is enjoyable actually watching a ballet. Watching dancers on stage doesn't appeal to me or entertain me. The music is what I enjoy.


It won't help you to know that before I became obsessed with the violin I was obsessed with ballet? :lol:

Ballet is a wonderful art form! They are so graceful. And it is extremely hard to learn, they put many hours into it. Just think how their actions fit in with the music, and the story. It is truly great. You need to go and see one live, then you will like it.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

MaestroViolinist said:


> It won't help you to know that before I became obsessed with the violin I was obsessed with ballet? :lol:
> 
> Ballet is a wonderful art form! They are so graceful. And it is extremely hard to learn, they put many hours into it. Just think how their actions fit in with the music, and the story. It is truly great. You need to go and see one live, then you will like it.


I've seen one live and I do make great heckles if I may say so myself.


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## BurningDesire

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I've seen one live and I do make great heckles if I may say so myself.


You better not heckle at live performances >_>


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

BurningDesire said:


> You better not heckle at live performances >_>


But it was fun!


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## moody

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Ditto. But most ballets before Stravinsky (other than French baroque) are so incredibly boring IMO.


And probably only watched by dinosors I'm sure!


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## moody

Probably also in company with some dinosaurs.


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## moody

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Swan Lake is overrated, I agree.
> 
> I forgot to mention my favourite ballet, Satie's _Relâche._


Yes ,yes, I just knew it must be.


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## mitchflorida

This is some of the best ballet I have seen.


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## BurningDesire

Both the orchestral and piano versions of Cage's ballet are beautiful. I highly recommend you check out both, but the piano one is the only one I can find on youtube. Its just great stuff <3

Thats the awesome Margaret Leng Tan on piano


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## Sonata

What do you think of Prokofiev's Cinderella? I'm loving Romeo and Juliet, but haven't heard his Cinderella yet.


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## BurningDesire

Sonata said:


> What do you think of Prokofiev's Cinderella? I'm loving Romeo and Juliet, but haven't heard his Cinderella yet.


I haven't heard the whole thing, just excerpts. I love what I have heard. It seems a very dark take on Cinderella, don't go in expecting the Disney version X3


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## Sonata

I understand. That's ok, the little bit of Prokofiev I've heard suggests he's not all puppies and kittens. Can't wait to give more of his stuff a listen, Cinderella and otherwise.


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## Crudblud

I recently listened to Rozhdestvensky's recording with the Great Symphony Orchestra of the something or other. I felt that there were many good bits, but that it didn't really amount to much as a whole. Maybe it was the recording, but I tend to trust Rozhdestvensky. Maybe it would be worth seeking out a different recording, maybe Svetlanov if he has one.


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## Sonata

Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra have a recording that seemed to garner high reviews.


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## BurningDesire

I was looking into one by Andres Previn and the LSO (mostly after falling in love with their recording of The Nutcracker)


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