Description on Youtube:
Respighi's ballet 'Belkis, Queen of Sheba' was a tremendous success when first performed at La Scala, Milan, in 1932. It required enormous forces, not only on-stage with several hundred dancers, but also in the pit, with a huge orchestra, a large chorus and a narrator. The scenario depicted the union of the Queen of Sheba with King Solomon in the year 1000 B.C. However, the score's colossal requirements and 80-minute length meant that the work has never entered the general ballet repertoire.
In order to salvage some of the music, Respighi prepared the four-movement Orchestral Suite heard here. It was played by the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic under Sascha Goetzel during the 2014 Proms and was its UK premiere. As an encore, Maestro Goetzel played a work very popular in Turkey, "Köçekçe" by Ulvi Cemal Erkin.
