Friday, February 22, 2019

RAd's Playlist | Chopin Ballets, The Beatles 1


In preparation for the upcoming Deux by Ballet Manila that features the music of Frédéric Chopin and The Beatles, it's time to listen to a couple of recordings to be more familiar with the music. Like what I've said before, doing this makes me anticipate, appreciate, and enjoy the performance more.

The ballet Les Sylphides has undergone some changes throughout the years but everything began when Alexander Glazunov orchestrated some of Chopin's piano music and published it as Chopiniana, Op. 46 in 1894. Michael Fokine set this selection of music into choreography, subsequently adding and removing different music by Chopin while other arrangers then made different orchestrations of these selections.


Eventually, the most used and most recorded version of Les Sylphides/Chopiniana music is the one orchestrated by Roy Douglas and I believe that this will be what will be heard in Deux.


As for The Winding Road featuring the music of The Beatles, one might think that it's a no brainer to start elsewhere other than the 1 compilation album. But some of the excerpts of this new work that were previewed did not feature music included in this compilation. So one either has to dig into the extensive discography of the Fab Four or just be surprised to see which tracks makes it to the finished ballet.

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