This album, titled 'The Ultimate Ballet Album', features music from some of the world's most famous ballets, including Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Giselle.
Composition History
The story of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker is derived from Alexandre Dumas père's adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's tale, 'Der Nussknacker und der Maüsekönig'.
Composition History
Debussy's famous Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune, completed in 1894, was inspired by a poem by Mallarmé and later used for a ballet by Diaghilev in 1912, though Debussy was unhappy with this treatment.
Composition History
Khachaturian completed the score for his ballet Spartacus in 1954, which tells the story of the slave rebellion led by Spartacus against Roman rule.
Historical Context
The word 'ballet' is French and was adopted into English in the seventeenth century, with the art form developing into its modern state during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Composition History
Delibes' Coppélia is based on 'Der Sandmann', a story by German Romantic writer and composer E.T.A. Hoffmann, which also inspired Offenbach's 'The Tales of Hoffmann'.
Composition History
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is based on an old German fairy-story, which was popular during the Romantic period.
You might also enjoy...
Delibes: Coppélia / Chopin: Les Sylphides / Gounod: Faust Ballet Music
Ballet Music (Famous)
Offenbach, Rosenthal: Gaîté parisienne - Gounod: Ballet de Faust
Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite / Falla: El Amor Brujo; El Sombrero De Tres Picos
Copland: Billy the Kid & Rodeo; Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite
Orchestral Music (Russian) - Khachaturian, A.I. / Prokofiev,S. / Glazunov, A.K. / Tchaikovsky, P.I. (Russian Adagios)
