Ballets Russes and Descendants - Music

Music

Diaghilev secured the employment of many great music composers for his ballets. This served to distinguish his ballets from many 19th-century ballets, for which the music had usually been provided by less inspired composers such as Riccardo Drigo, Ludwig Minkus, and Cesare Pugni.

Diaghilev commissioned many original scores, and borrowed freely from the existing musical canon. His ballets included music by artists such as Debussy, Milhaud, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Ravel, Satie, Respighi, Stravinsky and Richard Strauss.

The impresario also engaged conductors who were, or became eminent in their field during the 20th century, including Pierre Monteux (1911-16 and 1924), Ernest Ansermet (1915-23), Edward Clark (1919-20) and Roger Désormière (1925-29).

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