nature's ballet
This wonderful music video is like a real life "Fantasia", and has beautiful, and sometimes humorous footage, gathered from many sources, like the National Geographic Society. The editing, and synchronization between film and music is fabulous, and though there is no credit given, the performances of the musical pieces are top notch, and sound excellent.The music, which is often in excerpted form, is:
Mozart: Overture to "The Magic Flute", presents clips from the up-coming selections.
Tchaikovsky: Pas de Quatre from "Swan Lake", with scurrying ants.
Max Reger: "The Virgin's Slumber Song", with some monkeys who are great gymnasts.
Debussy: "Reflections on the Water" is spectacular, with whales, seals, dolphins and seaweed doing an aquatic dance.
Bizet: March from "Jeux d'Enfants" has some funny penguins.
Vivaldi: Largo from Concerto in D; lizards and other desert creatures.
Berlioz: Rakoczy March from "Damnation of Faust", in Australia, with strange birds and kangaroos.
Alfredo Catalani: Dance of the Water Nymphs from "The Lorelei"; gorgeous swans, in a winter setting.
Brahms: Fourth Movement theme from the Symphony # 1 has a majestic soaring eagle.
Stravinsky: Two excerpts from "The Firebird", with busy fire ants and more.
Verdi: Two excerpts from "Aida", with a variety of tropical creatures and more.
Charles Griffes: "The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan", with lions, zebras, and wondrous scenes from Africa. This is an exquisite, impressionistic piece of music I was not previously familiar with.
Johann Strauss, Jr.: "Perpetual Motion", with the hilarious gooney birds from the Midway Islands.
Bizet: Duet theme from "The Pearl Fishers", with mountains, glaciers, and bears !
Mendelssohn: Scherzo from "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which is used over the credits.
Sure to please young and old, and even those that do not appreciate classical music. Running time is 48 minutes.
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Perfect visual illustration of classical pieces for all ages
It's difficult to imagine the hundreds of hours of footage the editors of this video must have gone through to select the scenes of animals and habitats in this video. The video and classical tracks complement each other PERFECTLY. Our toddler loves this tape, and he reaches for my hand each time the whale leaps out of the ocean into the air during the climax of Debussy's "Reflections on the Water." My personal favorite is the beginning of "The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan," accompanied by a full moon, then giraffes moving like ghosts across the African plain in the early morning light.
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