The Ballet Theatre Orchestra under Joseph Levine in Offenbach

Here's some delightful music for a gorgeous Saturday in New England. The Ballet Theatre Orchestra under Joseph Levine have a grand old time in the Helen of Troy and Bluebeard Suites, arranged from the operettas by Antal Dorati. The latter maestro, a skilled composer himself, hoped to bring the best of Offenbach to the ballet stage - Dorati was considered one of the very finest conductors for ballet in his day and Maestro Levine was no slouch himself. Winning combinations here.

Though the Ballet Theatre Orchestra is small, probably 50 players or so, they know this fare and collectively make a great case for arrangements of this type. Offenbach was a wonderful spinner of melodies but sadly, he is known today for Gaite Parisienne only, a shame because though entertaining, it is not his best music or is it entirely representative of his compositional skills. For more fine Offenbach, I would like to point you in the direction of the excellent blog, http://quartier-des-archives.blogspot.com/. There are several fine operetta's presented in full and conducted by the vastly underrated Rene Leibowitz.

There are two FLAC files here from a Capitol lp- I have not broken down the suites since there is precious little time between the numbers. Enjoy!

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Swan Lake Excerpts played by the Ballet Theatre Orchestra under Joseph Levine

Joseph Levine and his Ballet Theatre Orchestra made a number of very good recordings for Capitol during the 1950's. I especially like his Billy the Kid Suite and  Gould's Fall River Legend. Well, here is Maestro Levine leading extended excerpts from Swan Lake.

I think that the music is wonderfully realized by this small, but fine orchestra. In fact, the forces here are more in line with  what you would expect while attending the ballet. Here, much detail is revealed and the winds are not overwhelmed by massed strings. Levine is wholly convincing.

Enjoy!

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