In a long creative life Saint-Saëns turned his hand to almost all genres of composition, in his own words ‘as an apple tree produces apples’. His 1896 ballet Javotte, which here receives its first complete recording on compact disc, is an unpretentious, village lovestory, in which Javotte eventually persuades her parents to acquiesce in her betrothal to her beloved Jean. The music, with its occasional nod towards Delibes and Mendelssohn, brims with the elegance, wit and sparkle characteristic of Saint-Saëns’ most refined orchestral style. The exotic incidental music to the historical Persian drama Parysatis (from the Persian word for swallow), includes a ballet, here represented by an introduction and three scenes.