20th Century English Ballets

Well-Crafted Ballets, Excellent Sound

20th Century English Ballets" is a sonic delight, with quite spectacular sound. The Northern Ballet Theatre Orchestra is an excellent group, as those who have bought the Naxos recording of Philip Feeney's "Dracula" ballet music have found out. The atmosphere is quite different here, because the stories are different.

Feeney has written some lively and characterful music for his version of the Cinderella story, which takes about 30 minutes. I would say it is the best of the three works, being marginally better than the Muldowney. The story has its sad moments when Cindy can't go to the ball, but this nothing as dark as in Dracula! Feeney has written a wonderful score with many magical moments, and also some spectacular ones. This is really fine music.

The Rev. Patrick Brontë had six daughters, three of whom became writers: Anne, Emily and Charlotte. This ballet is about their lives and loves from childhood on, and Dominic Muldowney has written an imaginative score. We see "Wuthering Heights" growing in Emily's imagination; Charlotte's infatuation with her teacher in Brussels; her short marriage, ending with her death; and finally, the father, Patrick, in his old age, who outlived all his daughters. This is very well-done theatre music.

Carl Davis composed ballet music to illustrate Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." And so we see Bob Cratchit; the young Scrooge and his fiancé, Belle, who realized Scrooge loved money; Jacob Marley and the ghosts; and Scrooge's conversion to the Christmas spirit. His score is also well done for what seems to be a children's ballet, often incorporating material from well-known Christmas carols.

I enjoy this disc, especially the Feeney and the Muldowney works, which are very good. The Davis is colorful, with good arrangements of the arrangements of the Christmas carols, but is not very original. August 21, 2000

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