After the success of our Focus on: Opera, we started thinking about a follow-up that would stay in the world of classical music while taking us somewhere completely different. Ballet quickly felt like the only natural next step — and, here is an honest confession, I have been looking forward to sharing this playlist with you for quite a while.

So here it is: 1 hour and 10 minutes of full immersion into one of the most captivating art forms ever created. Not just a collection of famous pieces, but a miniature history of ballet told through music, spanning nearly 200 years — from the Romantic era to the bold modernism of the 20th century. It is a world we all recognise, yet somehow rarely stop to explore.

So, what is inside?

We couldn't start anywhere other than with Maurice Ravel's Boléro — a cornerstone of classical music and one of the boldest ideas ever written for an orchestra. One melody, repeated 18 times over the same rhythm for around 15 minutes. Simplicity turned into spectacle.

From there, we move to Léo Delibes' Sylvia — the piece that instantly comes to mind when someone says "beautiful ballet music". Legend has it that Tchaikovsky admired Sylvia so much that he wished he would heard it before writing Swan Lake. Naturally, Swan Lake makes an appearance too, alongside the sweeping Masquerade Waltz — a piece that wasn't originally written for ballet at all, but for theatre, before choreographers embraced its irresistible dramatic energy.

The journey then continues through Giselle, The Prince of the Pagodas, and Carmen, before gradually settling into the quiet elegance of Gabriel Fauré's Pavane. Originally, a pavane was a slow Renaissance court dance; Fauré transformed it into one of the most graceful orchestral miniatures ever composed. It feels like the only possible way to end this journey.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is that, just over a century ago, ballet music wasn't considered serious concert music. Before Tchaikovsky, audiences rarely listened to ballet scores on their own — they were simply there to accompany the dancers. Today, many of these works have taken on a life of their own. We wait for performances, return to the recordings, and, every now and then, find ourselves unexpectedly emotional listening to them.

So, no ticket to Paris, Florence or Saint Petersburg required. Just press play, and let us immerse you in the world of ballet.