Josef Bayer (1852-1913) wrote one-act ballets as director of ballet in Vienna. The Fairy Doll (Die Puppenfee) is one of those toys-come-to-life stories full of charming melodies spread over 21 generally brief numbers. Balletomanes know what to expect: a lilting waltz or two, some local color in the form of Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish dances, the usual quota of polkas and gallops, and a few pauses for an adagio or two. Okay, the inconsequentiality of it all makes the lightest French music sound like a symphony by Allan Pettersson, but unless you’re a musical diabetic this particular helping of what Gerard Hoffnung called “flagellated, no vipped” cream should satisfy your sweet tooth very nicely. The excerpts from Sun and Earth (Sonne und Erde) offer more of the same, and in both cases Andrew Mogrelia gets perfectly fine results from the Slovak Radio Orchestra, whose basically lean but never thin sonority keeps the sweetness under control. Good sound rounds out this surprisingly enjoyable disc.
