with the BBC Opera Chorus
Conductor, Stanford Robinson
Max Worthley (tenor)
Ian Blair (baritone)
Ballet Music
In the nineteenth century, ballet scores were always specially commissioned, but with the advent of Diaghilev and his famous Ballets Russes in the early part of the present century all that was, changed, and the treasure-houses of the great-and not so great—masters were freely rifled to provide music for ballets of many kinds.
Tonight's programme includes music specially composed and music that has been, shall we say, ' borrowed,' for ballet. The most important example in the latter category is Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture ' Hamlet,' which Robert Helpmann has used with such dramatic effect for his ballet of that name. In the same sphere arc numbers from Balanchme's Cotillon, danced to the music of Chabrier. Music specially written for ballet is represented by excerpts from Stravinsky's Fire-bird; from opera-ballet there are the choral dances fom Rimsky-Korsakov's fairy-tale opera Sadko and dances from Meyerbeer's Roben the Devil, Harold Neden