MacMillan’s vision has been vital in shaping The Royal Ballet’s style and repertory, and what better way to appreciate his art than with this rare chance to experience three contrasting works in a single performance. Abstract, dramatic, humorous – this programme gives a wonderfully varied introduction not just to MacMillan’s work but to the beauty and dramatic power of ballet itself. Concerto, to Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, contrasts moments of exuberance and elegiac reflection. The Judas Tree places a single woman among 13 men to enact a harrowing event that is recognizably contemporary but with biblical overtones. Elite Syncopations completes the programme with a sparkling evocation of a dance hall that brings ragtime rhythms to the dance, and a ragtime band to the stage. 

1 DISC SET

Concerto

Music: Dmitry Shostakovich

Artists: Marianela Nuñez, Yuhui Choe, Steven McRae

Conductor: Dominic Grier

Elite Syncopations

Music: Scott Joplin & other Ragtime composers

Artists: Sarah Lamb, Valeri Hristov, Steven McRae

Conductor: Robert Clark

The Judas Tree

Music: Brian Elias

Artists: Carlos Acosta, Leanne Benjamin, Edward Watson

Conductor: Barry Wordsworth

The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, March 2010

Extra features:

Introductions to each ballet piece by Deborah MacMillan

“There has never been a choreographer that I can think of who could produce three such contrasting works, and you sit watching in wonderment at the fertile imaginings of his mind. " 

Telegraph

"It's grisly, and yet horribly exciting in its momentum, as the men show off to each other like skateboarders, flinging themselves into barrel turns while knotting and unknotting their legs." 

The Independent