One might expect a Maurizio Kagel ballet to pointedly ask questions of the genre, and so it proves with Tantz-Schul, completed in 1987 and a ballet which respects conventions by both dismantling and reformulating them. The inspiration comes from Gregorio Lambranzi’s 1716 treatise New and Curious Theatrical School of Dancing, which combines descriptions of dance types with relevant illustrations and melodic examples. While the illustrations have encouraged the satiric nature of the concept, the melodies have conditioned the actual music – integrated into an often elaborate musical fabric with varying freedom, while making a virtue of the many notational errors to have found their way into Lambranzi’s treatise.

The work begins in jaunty stylistic anonymity, most nearly reminiscent of Hindemith or Blacher, but the treatment of ‘Folie d’Espagne’ plays fast and lose with the theme’s qualities in a way which could only be Kagel. Part One closes with a Turkish lament which distantly recalls Busoni in sardonic mode, and the ensuing soprano and tenor duets increase the element of surreal humour. What follows is seldom without wit, if not entirely justifying the extent of the piece in purely musical terms, though the lengthy finale constituting Part Three provides an apt summation of aesthetic ends. If not quite a latterday successor to Pulcinella, the two ballets would make for a provocative pairing on stage.

Under the composer’s direction, the Saarbrüken Radio Symphony Orchestra gives an alert and stylish performance, which Margaret Chalker and Christoph Späth enter into with commitment. The booklet reproduces some of Lambranzi’s original illustrations, together with a note from the composer and texts of the vocal numbers (albeit with German translation only). Not a work to rank with Stücke der Windrose or Sankt Bach-Passion in its overall significance within Kagel’s output, but one which, falling somewhere between intriguing and disturbing, ought to be worth catching in performance.