SACD Ernest Ansermet – The Royal Ballet Gala Performances

The Royal Ballet Gala Performances as a hybrid SACD box set with two discs from Analogue Productions: Ernest Ansermet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in selections from eight ballets. The SACD layer offers both the stereo mix, mastered by Bernie Grundman, and the mono mix, mastered by Willem Makkee.

A whole ballet repertoire in one recording

A march raises the curtain, a waltz opens up the space, and minutes later a single musical gesture conjures an entirely different stage. The Royal Ballet Gala Performances gathers selections from eight ballets: Tchaikovsky beside Delibes and Adam, with Rossini, Schumann and Chopin entering through music adapted for the dance. Rather than one continuous story, the programme shows how many ways an orchestra can carry movement, character and atmosphere – a perfect introduction to the repertoire and a joy to return to, number by number.

In January 1959, Ernest Ansermet recorded the programme with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, at Kingsway Hall in London. The original stereo edition appeared on RCA Victor Red Seal as LDS-6065. Michael Williamson produced, with Kenneth Wilkinson as engineer – a team from Decca’s British recording tradition, even though the release carried RCA’s name.

A conductor who understood dance

Ansermet is closely associated with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, but here he conducts London’s opera-house orchestra – and his familiarity with ballet reached back to his work with the Ballets Russes. That experience matters in a collection that moves between Tchaikovsky’s great ballets, French theatre music and orchestrated piano pieces: a waltz needs a different inner swing from a character miniature, a pas de deux a different span from a brisk ensemble dance.

The programme opens with The Nutcracker: March, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Arabian Dance, Chinese Dance, Dance of the Reed Pipes and Waltz of the Flowers – celesta sparkle, woodwind colours and the grand sweep of the waltz side by side. La Boutique fantasque brings Rossini in Respighi’s adaptation with Tarantella, Andante mosso and Can-Can, and Coppélia follows with introductions, mazurka, waltzes, csárdás and the doll’s waltz.

From Giselle to Les Sylphides

Adam’s Giselle brings the Romantic ballet into focus with the introduction and waltz from Act I and the pas de deux and variation from Act II. Swan Lake is represented by the Dance of the Little Swans, a pas de deux and a waltz. Carnaval presents Schumann’s piano music in orchestral form – Pierrot, Reconnaissance, Aveu and Pantalon et Colombine – with orchestrations involving Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov, among others.

The Sleeping Beauty returns to Tchaikovsky with the introduction and Lilac Fairy, the Rose Adagio and the waltz. Three Chopin pieces from Les Sylphides, orchestrated by Roy Douglas, bring the gala to its close: the Prelude in A major, Op. 28 No. 7, the Mazurka in C major, Op. 67 No. 3, and the Grande Valse brillante in E-flat major, Op. 18. March and waltz, character piece and adagio, grand tableau and small gesture – a wonderfully varied evening.

The hybrid SACD box set from Analogue Productions

CAPC 6065 SA is a hybrid SACD box set with two discs from Analogue Productions (RCA/Decca Living Stereo). According to the publisher, the SACD layer contains both the stereo mix, mastered by Bernie Grundman, and the mono mix, mastered by Willem Makkee; the CD layer contains the stereo mix only. The SACD layer plays on SACD-capable players, the CD layer on any conventional CD player.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

More from the series: RCA Living Stereo Series

Also in other editions: 5-LP box (45 RPM) · 2-LP set (33⅓ RPM)

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

• Ernest AnsermetconductorParticipation: Complete programme
• Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent GardenorchestraParticipation: Complete programme

Conductor and orchestra are documented; individual orchestra members are not securely identified. The tracklist lists the eight works.