7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bursting with orchestral color..., February 12, 2007
This review is from: Jules Massenet: Ballet Suites (Audio CD)
Anyone wanting an album filled with short glittering tracks(most are 3min.
or less)will revel with this Neville Marriner performance. In the mid 19th century ballet sequences were required to be incorporated into a act of all operas performed in Paris. Jules Massenet orchestrated them expertly. His "Le Cid" of 1885 depicts a Castilian nobleman ridding Spain of the Moors, with a touch of romance added. As you would expect plenty of Spanish influence dominates the instrumentation. 1899's "Cendrillon" the age old Cinderella fairy tale, it is text book romanticism. The saintly "Thais" takes on a somber spiritual mood, with a passage including organ. In 1898 it was revised adding a big ballet number extending act 1. Over-all this is a pleasing musical hour, but with short tracks minimal thematic development is achieved.
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