CD 1:
Igor Stravinsky:
The Rite of Spring

Claude Debussy:
Jeux

Paul Dukas:
Fanfare pour précéder « La Péri »
La Péri

CD 2:
Maurice Ravel:
Daphnis et Chloé

Francis Poulenc:
Les Biches

CD 3:
Claude Debussy:
Prélude a l’apres-midi d’un faune

Florent Schmitt:
La Tragédie de Salomé

Igor Stravinsky:
Pétrouchka

CD 4:
Peter Tchaikovsky:
Swan Lake

Igor Stravinsky:
Song of the Nightingale

CD 5:
Manuel de Falla:
The Three-Cornered Hat

Sergei Prokofiev:
The Buffoon - Suite, Op. 21a

CD 6:
Igor Stravinsky:
Pulcinella

Richard Strauss:
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op. 28

Maurice Ravel:
La Valse – Poeme choréographique

CD 7:
George Auric:
The Mad
La Pastorale

CD 8:
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov:
Schéhérazade, Op. 35

Sergei Prokofiev:
Ala et Lolly, Op. 20

CD 9:
Darius Milhaud:
Le Train bleu – Ballett

Vincenzo Tommasini:
Le donne di buon umore

Henri Sauguet:
La Chatte – Ballett

CD 10:
Igor Stravinsky:
The Firebird
Apollon musagete

Les Ballets Russes was founded by director Sergei Diaghilev in 1909. The company never actually performed in Russia – it made its debut in Paris, and the world was to be its home during its 20 years of existence. With his concepts and commissions, Diaghilev fostered collaborations between the most exciting artists of the time, working with composers such as Stravinsky, Ravel, Prokofiev, Debussy and Satie, artists like Picasso, Kandinsky and Matisse, choreographers including Fokine, Nijinsky and Balanchine, and costume designers such as Coco Chanel. He set in motion a groundbreaking artistic revolution, the echoes of which still reverberate even today. The company’s productions were hugely successful, and Diaghilev most certainly elevated the careers of the artists he commissioned, in the process introducing an international audience to myths and legends and music and design motifs that would otherwise have remained unknown. The significance of music within all this cannot be overestimated – Diaghilev, in fact, came to ballet through his love of music.

SWR CLASSIC has released many of the ballets commissioned or produced by Diaghilev, featuring music by composers from Stravinsky through to Richard Strauss. These are now being re-released as a 10CD boxed set.

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Recordings: 11.2006 (CD 1, 1-14); 07.2006 (CD 1, 15), 02.2004, Hans-Rosbaud-Studio, Baden-Baden (CD 1, 16-17); 15.09.1997, Philharmonie Berlin (CD 2, 1-12); SWR Studio 5, Baden-Baden (CD 2, 13-17); 02.2007 (CD 3, 1); 12.2007 (CD 3, 2-6).