Ludwig Minkus

Ludwig Minkus’s Don Quixote has held a place in the repertoire since its premiere at the Bolshoi Theater in 1869. The music is charming and well orchestrated, but persistently a little bland. There are plenty of melodies, but none of them are particularly distinctive. This is certainly not Tchaikovsky or Prokofiev. The poor boy meets rich girl love story interwoven with the fantastic adventures of Don Quixote has attracted the biggest names in ballet over the years, with Marius Petipa’s original classical production being followed by Rudolph Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and George Balanchine. Now, it is Carlos Acosta’s turn. His choreography is based on Petipa, but he has modernized it with his trademark physicality, and some new unclassical sounds (clapping, vocal exclamations) from the corps de ballet on stage.

Ludwig (or Léon) Minkus does not rank very high on anyone’s list of distinguished composers, but his music nonetheless survives thanks to the tuneful scores he turned out for the ballet, particularly for the choreographer Marius Petipa. And it is probably Don Quichotte that is the best-known today, closely followed by La Bayadère . Until the Russian ballet companies began touring the West in the 1950s and 60s, audiences knew only the pas de deux, which was a staple of many a touring company. But once the Kirov and Bolshoi showed us that there was considerably more to the work, productions began to proliferate. Rudolf Nureyev even made a full-length film of the ballet almost 50 years ago with the Australian Ballet Company, which allows us to see the captivating Lucette Aldous. He then went on to stage the piece for many other companies, including the Paris Opera. Aside from the fact that today we don’t know how much of Don Quichotte is actually the work of Petipa, as it was revived and revised by Alexander Gorsky, among a great many others, rendering meaningless the credit “based upon Marius Petipa,” what Nureyev gives us is his version of the ballet as danced by the Kirov during his time with that company.

Deutsche Grammophon will release the official soundtrack album for the biographical drama The White Crow. The album features the film’s original score composed by Ilan Eshkeri (Stardust, Layer Cake, Still Alice, Kick-Ass, Johnny English Reborn) and featuring violin solos by Lisa Batiashvili. Also included are ballet compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Krein & Ludwig Minkus, most of which have been newly arranged for the project by Eshkeri. The soundtrack will be released digitally tomorrow, March 22 and will be available to download here. The White Crow is directed by Ralph Fiennes who also stars in the movie alongside Oleg Ivenko, Adèle Exarchopoulos, as well as ballet-world enfant terrible Sergei Polunin, Chulpan Khamatova, Olivier Rabourdin, Raphaël Personnaz and Louis Hofmann. The movie is inspired by the book Rudolf Nureyev: The Life by Julie Kavanaugh and charts the iconic dancer’s famed defection from the Soviet Union to the West in 1961, despite KGB efforts to stop him. The drama is being released in British theaters this week following its premiere at the Telluride & Toronto Film Festivals last year and will air arrive in the U.S. on April 26, where it is being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.

This 35 disc set is jam packed with thrilling, beautiful - and superbly recorded - music.
Tchaikovsky's "Big Three" are very well represented here. Dutoit's lushly lyrical and dramatic "Swan Lake", Bonynge's affectionate and inspired "Sleeping Beauty" (listen out for grumpy Carabosse's distant thunder rumbling in the Act II Symphonic Entr'acte!) and a version of "The Nutcracker" - Bychkov and the Berlin Philharmonic, which is brilliant, full of character and sparkle.

This unique collection celebrates the pas de deux: the steps for two or partner dances so central to ballets both modern and classical. It brings together 16 exceptional pas de deux from The Royal Ballet's unequalled repertory, in outstanding performances by Company dancers past and present. Representing The Royal Ballet's heritage works and recent creations, as well as 19th-century classics, Pas de Deux demonstrates the choreographic diversity, technical brilliance, show-stopping spectacle and artistry for which The Royal Ballet is acclaimed around the world. Included in this collection are Frederick Ashton's Voices of Spring and pas de deux from his La Fille mal gardée; from Kenneth MacMillan's Romeo and Juliet, Concerto, Elite Syncopations, Manon and Mayerling; from Wayne McGregor's Limen; from Christopher Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter's Tale; and from the 19th-century classics Giselle, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.