1 Petrushka by Igor Stravinsky
How music that’s now 115 years old can sound this modern is beyond me. I totally love the first three ballets that Stravinsky wrote for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. For me, Firebird is one of the most beautiful things ever made, and The Rite of Spring surely the most original. But in some ways I find Petrushka the most intriguing of all. Stravinsky here invents an entirely new way of telling a story through music and, in so doing, revolutionises the entire genre of narrative music in dance.
2 Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian
I maintain that the adagio melody from Spartacus may be the best tune ever written. I could happily listen to it forever. Khachaturian understood what all the great classical ballet composers knew very well: when it comes to putting big emotions on the dance stage, less is definitely not more.
3 MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse) by Michael Nyman
I went through a period of being pretty obsessed with this work of Michael Nyman’s, a massively ambitious piece of music which was written for the opening of the Paris to Lille TGV high-speed rail link. Years later I fell in love with it all over again when Christopher Wheeldon switched out the ‘M’ for a ‘D’ in his high-octane one-act ballet DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse.
4 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Joby Talbot
Alice was the first of the four story ballets Christopher Wheeldon and I have so far made together and is the one that’s travelled the furthest. In recent weeks I have attended Alice opening nights in La Scala, Milan and Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, and the show is currently in the repertory of multiple companies across five continents. Having the opportunity to hear orchestras from all around the world interpret my music and make it their own is thrilling beyond belief.
5 The Hardest Button to Button by The White Stripes/Aluminium
When Wayne McGregor chose to use a combination of my compositions and arrangements I’d made of songs by The White Stripes for his ballet Chroma it was a life-changing moment for me – the first time I got to see the super-human artists of the Royal Ballet dancing to my music and the first time I got to work with the incomparable orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The White Stripes re-imaginings came from an album Richard Russell and I put out on XL Recordings called Aluminium.
