This disc is just a peach. Jules Massenet’s ballet music brings together all the most charming musical trends of the 19th century: the new French ballet tradition, the lightness of Offenbach’s operettas, the lush tunes of Strauss’s Vienna, the big splashy orchestration of late-century “exotic” potboilers. The music keeps getting better and better as the CD goes along.
First I listened out of order and decided the opener, Bacchus, was my least favourite. Then I went in order and, mid-Bacchus, wondered what I had been complaining about. Yes, “Chasseresses et Bacchantes” has an early role for a percussion instrument so wimpily played that I’m not sure what it is, but then the most glorious Johann Strauss parody waltz breaks out and all is forgiven. Yes, the final bacchanale isn’t as crazy as Saint-Säens’ or Roussel’s, but what music is?
Hérodiade is an opera about Herod, where he’s the central character, in contrast with Richard Strauss’s Salome. The ballet music comes from a banquet where Herod entertains guests with dances by exotic slave girls from various foreign lands. It’s the shortest selection here.
Then we have big suites from Thaïs and Le Cid, each over 20 minutes, the highlights of the disc. Those who know Thaïs only for its “Meditation” will be happy to hear that the rest of the opera is also jam-packed with beautiful music. It’s varied, too, from the stern timpani roll of the opening andante to the perky Pierné-like flute and piccolo solos of the sixth movement, to the unexpected two-minute church-like organ solo. Le Cid is a festival of Spanish tropes, tunes and clichés from the very start. The inevitable cor anglais solo, in ‘Madrilène’, is just gorgeous. It’s as tuneful and colourful as the Spanish pastiches of Chabrier and Debussy, which is to say it’s a ton of fun.
The Barcelona Symphony plays excellently throughout, that one wimpy percussion issue confined to a single track. They seem to especially enjoy the Le Cid music, but who wouldn’t? Patrick Gallois continues to prove himself an extremely skilled, sensitive conductor of ballet music. You could imagine people dancing to this album. Given how good the music is, it’s extremely rare to have it collected on disc without the full operas alongside. Frémaux and Marriner have recorded Le Cid but for sound, panache and comprehensiveness, it’s hard to beat this. What fun.
– Brian Reinhart, MusicWeb International
On Sale
Massenet: Ballet Music / Gallois, Barcelona
$19.99
$13.99
CD
Naxos
Nov 19, 2013
8573123
STRAIGHT NO CHASER
MUSIC ON VINYL
Available as
Vinyl
$40.49
Nov 28, 2025
Limited edition of 2500 numbered copies on crystal clear 180-gram audiophile vinyl. Thelonious Monk once famously said "the piano ain't got no wrong notes", and this mantra is evident in his playing: full of angular, challenging harmonies combined with a harsh and percussive technique. Though his style of playing was unorthodox, he could also play runs and arpeggios with great speed and accuracy. All in all Monk would prove to be a long-lasting influence on jazz piano. All this is highlighted on 1967's Straight, No Chaser, Monk's sixth album for Columbia. On it, you'll find the album's namesake "Straight, No Chaser", a composition by Thelonious himself that became one of the most important blues-based standards in the jazz repertoire. Furthermore, the album features "Japanese Folk Song", a two-century old tune that Ryan Gosling's character is practicing in the movie La La Land. Charlie Rouse plays the tenor saxophone and the liner notes are writing by jazz writer and producer Orrin Keepnews.
STRAIGHT NO CHASER
$40.49
Vinyl
MUSIC ON VINYL
Nov 28, 2025
MOVL6204140.1
DEMON CHASER
Hat Hut Records
Available as
CD
$20.99
Jun 02, 2009
Classical Music
DEMON CHASER
$20.99
CD
Hat Hut Records
Jun 02, 2009
HATOLOGY673
STRAIGHT NO CHASER
SONY
Available as
CD
$11.99
Aug 27, 1996
Straight, No Chaser finds Monk in good company of his longtime companions: Charlie Rouse, Larry Gales and Ben Riley. For this CD, reissue producer Orrin Keepnews has added approximately 25 minutes of never-before-heard Monk, meticulously re-editing lost portions of issued titles while discovering 2 complete, previously unreleased performances.
STRAIGHT NO CHASER
$11.99
CD
SONY
Aug 27, 1996
SNY64886.2
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