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).
Read more about this topic: Ballets Russes Dancers
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Where should this music be? I’ th’ air, or th’ earth?
It sounds no more.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The music of an unhappy people, of the children of disappointment; they tell of death and suffering and unvoiced longing toward a truer world, of misty wanderings and hidden ways.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)
“Noble and wise men once believed in the music of the spheres: noble and wise men still continue to believe in the “moral significance of existence.” But one day even this sphere-music will no longer be audible to them! They will wake up and take note that their ears were dreaming.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)