Some of these recordings
have previously been issued on CD in
the UK. This was on a Double Decca entitled
‘A Ballet Gala’. As far as I am aware
though, this is the first issue of the
Ansermet Rossiniana. This very
aptly fills out another successful Eloquence
disc taking ballet as its theme. It
make for a very satisfying listening
experience. Solti’s performances were
always good given his well known ability
to make an orchestra sparkle, and that’s
exactly what the Covent Garden Orchestra
does here. This must be one of the best
performances of these two items in the
catalogue. Solti has the orchestra playing
on the edge of their seats.
Gaïté
Parisienne was in large part
composed by Offenbach, but ably arranged
by the conductor Maurice Rosenthal.
It comprises orchestrations of a variety
of short pieces taken from the Offenbach
operettas and makes up a 40 minute ballet
set in a fashionable Parisian café.
The central character is a rich but
naïve Peruvian - originally danced
by Massine. Coming into the café
with money to burn, he, like many others,
is bewitched by a lovely female glove-seller.
She is spoken for by an Austrian Baron
who is happy to flirt with her. Another
beauty, (La Lionne) enters with her
escort the Duke. As can be expected
with this mix, jealousy breaks out and
every one is compromised except the
old Peruvian, who is left, at the end
of the ballet, sitting in the café,
alone, a comic, yet pathetic figure.
The ballet music from
Faust has a different
provenance. Whereas Gaïté
Parisienne was created from opera
extracts for the ballet theatre and
concert hall, the Faust ballet
music derives from an interlude within
the opera, Faust. Most operas
performed in Paris during the 1800s
were not allowed to be mounted, unless
they contained substantial passages
of ballet music. Many of Verdi’s Italian
operas fell foul of this rule, and those
performed in France had to have ballets
incorporated to indulge the taste of
French audiences. It is a good job that
Beethoven’s Fidelio was completed
long before this strange requirement
came into force.
The Faust ballet
has no connection with the plot of the
opera. It served concert duty for many
years and is probably better known in
this form than in the opera. Solti,
with his long experience in the opera
house, performs this just as well as
the Offenbach. Purchasers will be well
pleased with both Solti-conducted items.
As if this was not
enough, the disc has been further filled
out with another ballet/concert work:
the Rossini-Respighi Rossiniana
here conducted by Ernest Ansermet. I
am not sure whether this item has been
issued in the UK before – it may have
been, but only for a short period of
time. It is very nice to welcome it
back into general availability, as Ansermet,
Geneva Hall and the Suisse Romande is
a powerful combination in this repertoire.
With Ansermet, one often feels that
the performance is "just right",
and so it is here.
Throughout, Decca’s
recording quality is beyond criticism:
clear, wide-ranging and very musical.
I recommend this disc very highly. I
have enjoyed it very much. In addition
it allows a work, long unavailable,
back into the catalogue. Well done Australian
Eloquence!
John Phillips
see also review
by Steve Vasta
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden/Georg Solti 
