Top 10 Favorite Ballets

[Drasko]

Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty
Tchaikovsky Swan Lake
Delibes Sylvia
Adam Giselle
Debussy Prelude a l'après-midi d'un faune
Ravel Daphnis et Chloe
Stravinsky Sacre du Printemps
Stravinsky Les Noces
Stravinsky Pulcinella
Prokofiev Le pas d'acier
de Falla El Amor brujo
Poulenc Les Biches
Milhaud Le Train Bleu
Bartok The Miraculous Mandarin
Henze Undine

... and that's leaving French baroque out of equation.

[mc ukrneal]

I've never even heard of this composer! Listening now! 

It is firmly in the romantic tradition. I fell for this on Mezzo one day. It is pure fun and beautiful music. I only know of two recorded versions on CD - CPO and Chandos. There is a DVD as well.

[kyjo]

You know, Kyjo, you always cheat. You never list just 10 in your Top 10 threads    In this case you've given us your Top 23 Favorite Ballets 

Sarge

Well, I did give a defined top ten, at least! I can't stop there, though!

[kyjo]

Hmmm. This list is 90% French/Russian.

Copland: Rodeo (complete uncut version)
Khachaturian: Gayaneh
Offenbach/Rosenthal: Gaîté Parisienne
Pierne: Cydalise et le chèvre-pied
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe
Ravel: Ma mère l'oye
Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane
Stravinsky: Petrushka
Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake

Unpopular opinion alert!!: I do not like The Nutcracker except a few highlight bits.

I, too, would have included Ma mere l'oye had I allowed myself more than one example per composer. You're the second person to mention the Pierne; I'll have to revisit it! Yeah, I'm not a huge Nutcracker fan either, mostly because it's so overplayed. I love the Pas de deux, though. This movement alone is worth the entire price of admission for the ballet IMO.

[kyjo]

Stravinsky: L'oiseau de feu

NOOOOOO!!!!

[kyjo]

Henze Undine

Nice pick, Drasko! Undine is a work of great power and beauty.

[Karl Henning]

Top 15, eh?  I think I see the trend here . . . .

[kyjo]

Anyone who enjoys Rimsky, Liadov, Khachaturian, or any other Russian/Soviet composers of "exotic" persuasion can't afford to miss out on Kara Karayev's wonderful ballet suites:

[asin]B005A0FDKC[/asin]

They have the same soaring melodies and catchy rhythms of the Khachaturian ballets but are overall less banal, so don't be put off by any comparisons to the Armenian composer if you're not too fond of his music. Karayev was also a better orchestrator than Khachaturian, bringing him closer to Rimsky in his use of glittering orchestral colors.

[North Star]

NOOOOOO!!!!

I hate myself for doing that, but one early Stravinsky had to go. 

[Brian]

Karayev was also a better orchestrator than Khachaturian,

!!!
That's it, I'm listening immediately. That's like saying "Karayev had a deeper voice than James Earl Jones."

[kyjo]

!!!
That's it, I'm listening immediately. That's like saying "Karayev had a deeper voice than James Earl Jones."

Don't get me wrong, I love Khachaturian's music, but his orchestration isn't exactly the last word in mastery, though it is far from bad. I love the music of some composers who weren't particularly noted orchestrators (Rachmaninov, for example). And, of course, I loathe the music of one of the most acclaimed orchestrators of all time, he who need not be named! I take it you believe Khachaturian was a great orchestrator, and there's nothing wrong with that. BTW let us know what you think of the Karayev works, Brian.

Here's the YouTube links for The Seven Beauties (which the uploader appropriately denotes as "must be heard!"):

1/3: http://youtu.be/VTgkq7WcHJg
2/3: http://youtu.be/tXCsUuymRoQ
3/3: http://youtu.be/svUeCeAzjBs

Couldn't find a YT upload of In the Path of Thunder.

[kyjo]

I hate myself for doing that, but one early Stravinsky had to go. 

It's okay, Karlo. All the Stravinsky ballets are great, but I just had to pick Firebird because I've loved it for a long time. The Finale is one of the most awesome three minutes in all of classical music!

[North Star]

It's okay, Karlo. All the Stravinsky ballets are great, but I just had to pick Firebird because I've loved it for a long time. The Finale is one of the most awesome three minutes in all of classical music!

I might have been a bit melodramatic..
Yes indeed, and the beginning is one of the best, too, incredibly ominous.

[Brian]

And, of course, I loathe the music of one of the most acclaimed orchestrators of all time, he who need not be named!

Stravinsky? Rimsky? Ravel? Mahler? Voldemort?

I have Naxos Music Library... on scene 10 of 11 from the Seven Beauties. So far very enjoyable (esp. Slavonic Dance), but without the big gushing melodies that make Khachaturian more immediately appealing. It's well-scored but not unusually so, I don't think.

Oh hey the final procession is very cool. Might take back that last bit about the scoring in light of the beginning for clarinets and piccolo duet.

[kyjo]

Stravinsky? Rimsky? Ravel? Mahler? Voldemort?

Nope! Haven't you been reading my posts?

Thanks for the report. Is In the Path of Thunder on Naxos Music Library as well? If so, don't fail to check it out!

[kyjo]

I might have been a bit melodramatic..
Yes indeed, and the beginning is one of the best, too, incredibly ominous.

Melodramatic? Far from it! Yes, agree with you about the opening.

[kyjo]

Here's the link to a YT playlist of Nosyrev's fantastic Song of Triumphant Love: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhk6tNxasa_gw0b50aMzdVCw5jn1BKJjV

[Brahmsian]

Here goes, and trying to stick to just one per composer.

In composer alphabetical order

Adam - Giselle
Bartok - The Wooden Prince
Beethoven - The Creatures of Prometheus
Delibes - Sylvia
Glazunov - The Seasons
Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliette
Ravel - Daphne et Chloe
Shostakovich - The Golden Age
Stravinsky - Petrouchka
Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake

Honorable mentions:  Too many, but I'll list one: Vaughan Williams - Job: A Masque for Dancing

[amw]

Do all of you keep your eyes tightly shut when you go to the ballet? ;P

I'm not sure I could name 10 favourites, but some of the ones I recall enjoying include -

Balanchine/Stravinsky - Stravinsky Violin Concerto (may be my overall favourite)
Balanchine/Stravinsky - Orpheus
Balanchine/Prokofiev - The Prodigal Son
Robbins/Bernstein - Fancy Free
Robbins/Gould - Interplay
Martins/Barber - Barber Violin Concerto (I think that's the title...)
Ailey/Ellington - ? (I know it's not Revelations, it had a band onstage with some pretty scary trumpet playing and... stuff...)
And several by less well-known choreographers whose names I don't remember unfortunately (most of which were indebted in some way to modern dance as well as the ballet tradition, but I suppose that's where my tastes lie) with various sources of music. Outside the big houses most of the repertoire rarely if ever acknowledges the composer, and almost never mentions the name of the composition. I recall some pieces to music by a band/solo project called something like Murcof (does that sound familiar?) which were both choreographically and musically interesting, although not really "classical".

Very New York-centric, since I actually haven't been to a single ballet performance since leaving there. Unless Māori traditional dancing counts XD

[kyjo]

Another ballet I really enjoy which I haven't mentioned yet is Antill's earthy, colorful Corroboree:

[asin]B0018PJEJO[/asin]

http://youtu.be/62eN2sthuWk

I've seen I dubbed "The Australian Rite of Spring" and I can see why!