Ballets: Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé.
Bartók wrote just two dance pieces – The Wooden Prince and The Miraculous Mandarin, of which the second is the more popular. Its story line is a grim, urban tale of seduction, violence and desire that, initially, got the work banned.
There are several ballets scores by Ravel, but some – Ma mère l’Oye [Mother Goose] and Adélaïde, ou le langage des fleurs – are orchestrations of music written for concert or recital room performance. Of the two longer original ballet scores, La Valse (commissioned but rejected by Diaghilev) tests the Viennese waltz to destruction, while Daphnis and Chloé lives in the slightly (there are pirates!) calmer pastoral world of ancient Greece, and is counted by many to be the composer’s masterpiece.
Apologies that there are no actual ballet performances. Though I’m sure they must exist somewhere, I failed to find complete stage performances of sufficient sound and/or visual quality.
Bartók:
A csodálatos mandarin
[The Miraculous Mandarin]
00:00 Introduction – The Chaotic City
01:27 Curtain – The Girl and the Three Tramps
03:13 The First Seductive Dance
04:41 The Shabby Old Rake
06:56 The Second Seductive Dance
08:20 The Shy Young Man
10:13 The Third Seductive Dance
11:47 The Mandarin enters the room
13:59 The girl begins a hesitant dance
18:44 She shudders at his embrace and he chases her
21:03 The three tramps leap out, seize the Mandarin and tear him away from the girl
23:06 Suddenly the Mandarin’s head appears between the pillows and he looks longingly at the girl
25:58 The terrified tramps discuss how they are to get rid of the Mandarin
27:30 The body of the Mandarin begins to glow with a greenish blue light
29:10 She resists no longer – they embrace
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
Part I 1 : Introduction – 0:01
2 : Danse religieuse – 2:54
3 : Scène – 7:30
4 : Danse générale – 10:25
5 : Scène – 11:11
6 : Danse grotesque de Dorcon – 11:49
7 : Danse légère et gracieuse de Daphnis – 13:44
8 : Scène – 16:20
9 : Danse de Lyceion – 18:16
10 : Arrivée des pirates – 19:42
11 : Scène (nocturne) – 21:34
12 : Danse lente et mystérieuse – 23:18
Part II
13 : Interlude – 26:25
14 : Introduction – 28:38
15 : Danse guerrière – 28:50
16 : Scène – 32:44
17 : Danse suppliante de Chloé – 33:26
Part III
18 : Introduction – 38:53
19 : Lever du jour – 39:15
20 : Pantomime – 44:31
21 : Danse générale – 50:54
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