Adam: Le Corsaire (complete ballet recorded in 1992)

For this 1990 Decca recording, Richard Bonynge included a divertissement in Act II, the Pas de fleurs (including the famous NailaWaltz), written by Léo Delibes (who had made his début as a ballet composer in La Sourcethe year before) for an 1867 revival in Paris. The recording was a labourof love for the conductor, who has done more than anyone on record to revive the sounds of the 19th-century Parisian ballet. 'It's often laborious,' he remarked in 1998 to Operamagazine about his work in preparing revivals of out-of-the-way repertoire, 'locating the original score, getting the orchestral parts edited and copied, divesting it of later additions -all this before the process of learning and rehearsal begins.'

Bonynge's work in this case was quickly recognisedas an invaluable contribution to our fuller appreciation of Adam's music, and the recording remains the most complete ever made of Le Corsaire. It makes a distinguished addition to the growing library of Eloquence releases dedicated to the conductor's work, and a complement to the reissue of Adam's lesser-known ballet, Le Diableà quatre(482 8603).

'Bonynge draws the diverse threads of the score together with a degree of expertise acquired from a lifetime of involvement with musicof this period, enabling the listener to follow the plot without difficulty. He obtains notably superior playing from the English Chamber Orchestra throughout.' Gramophone, October 1992

'We should not look down at poor Adam, whose desire to please an audience is still potent. Bonynge and the English Chamber Orchestra seize every opportunity to strut.' Fanfare, November/December 1998