Richard FLURY: Ballet Music
Der magische Spiegel (‘The Magic Mirror’), a 1954 ballet by the Swiss composer Richard Flury (1896–1967), tells a pantomime tale of flirtation, cuckoldry, magical spells and perdition – but this is no puritanical morality play: using the limited resources of a chamber orchestra to surprisingly full-bodied effect, Flury conjures up a delightful sequence of dances – a generous number of waltzes, with a czardas, a bolero and more – that skip past in good-humoured succession. And behind its innocent title, the Little Ballet Music of thirty years earlier hides a buoyant dance-suite, scored with a feeling for colour that would have gone down well in Hollywood.
Listen To This Recording:
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Der magische Spiegel: Ballet in Three Scenes (1954)
- First Part: I Introduction
- First Part: II Waltz (1) of the wife
- First Part: III The student’s serenade
- First Part: IV The student enters
- First Part: V The husband enters
- First Part: VI Waltz (2) (wife/student)
- First Part: VII The husband’s farewell
- Second Part: In the Laboratory of a Mediaeval Alchemist and Magician: VIII Scene of the magician
- Second Part: IX The husband is healed
- Second Part: X The husband is given a magic mirror
- Second Part: In the Laboratory of a Mediaeval Alchemist and Magician: XI Waltz (3) (wife/student)
- Second Part: XII Interlude 1
- Second Part: XIII The student draws the husband
- Second Part: XIV Waltz (4) (wife/student)
- Second Part: XV The student’s presentiment of death
- Second Part: XVI Bolero (wife/student)
- Second Part:: XVII Interlude 2
- Second Part: XVIII Czardas (wife/student)
- Second Part: XVIV Interlude 3
- Second Part: XX Death of the student
- Third Part: Still in the Woman’s Chamber: XXI Return of the husband
- Third Part: XXII Interlude 4
- Third Part: XXIII Reunion with his wife
- Third Part: XXIV The husband accuses his wife
- Third Part: XXV Interlude 5
- Third Part: XXVI Her girlfriends try to appease him
- Third Part: XXVII Opening the trunk
- Third Part: XXVIII Devils push the sinner into the fire
- I Arabesque
- II Melodie
- III Alla Polacca
- IV Valse pastorale
- V Tambourin
- VI Marche de Kermesse
Kleine Ballettmusik (1925-26)
First Recordings
MusicWeb International :
‘The recording, which shows depth and delicacy, is courtesy of Michael Ponder and Adaq Khan. It is fully satisfying, as is the playing and style adopted by Paul Mann and the Nuremberg orchestra.’
—Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International