Coppelia - Ballet Suite / Les Sylphides

Léo Delibes was a French composer of the Romantic era (1815-1910), who specialized in ballets, operas, and other works for the stage. His most notable works include the ballets "Coppélia" (1870) and "Sylvia" (1876). Both "Coppélia" and "Les Sylphides" were performed in Berlin in 1961 with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert Von Karajan. "Les Sylphides", which in 1909 became one of the first plotless ballets, consists of seven pieces which Chopin certainly never intended to orchestrate (Roy Douglas), much less to turn into a ballet. The "Nocturne" is particularly beautiful. Heaven knows why Karajan, then (1961) still in the beginning of his post-war collaboration with DG, should have recorded this short, lyrical and rather obscure ballet. But thank heaven he did.