Wiener Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan - Adolphe Adam: Giselle (1987)

Adolphe Adam's Giselle has been a favorite of ballet houses for quite some time now, and in one sense it is not hard to see what ballet enthusiasts find attractive about this succession of tuneful, delightfully scored numbers. On the other hand, the work is obviously and almost painfully inferior to the later works by Delibes or Tchaikovsky. The music is atmospheric, tender and includes some rather magical touches, true, but so do a huge number of ballet scores from around the same time and later. In sum, I have to admit that I find the continued popularity of this work somewhat puzzling and suspect it is more due to the inertia of tradition rather than any profound assessment of the intrinsic qualities of the music.
That said, this somewhat shortened version under Karajan provides a more than worthwhile musical experience, not the least because of Karajan's approach to the score - here, the music emerges as darker and more profound than in many alternative recordings; Karajan seems not to give any thought to the fact that this is music composed for dancing, and prefers rather to view it as something close to a symphonic poem - dramatic and bold and lush. By the same token, I guess this is a version that won't appeal to all people, and least of all to the regular balletomane. Still, Karajan makes something out of Adam's music that few others have come even close to doing, and as such I am willing to give it a firm recommendation. Sound quality is excellent; warm and lush and spacious.