Barber and Menotti—long-term friends kindred spirits, master melodists: these charming, hummable, danceable and rarely heard scores make a happy union. Menotti's Sebastian did well to outlive its original choreography, how many contemporary ballets have died with their first steps. It's a slight but useful (meaning versatile) score, blessed with a sweet lyric lilt that simply cries out for body language. One can draw a discreet veil over the dramatic gestures—Menotti spreads them thinly but professionally in the best Hollywood traditions: ''Cortege'' is an eminently corny march sequence, splendidly dressed for the occasion. But where elegance and repose are signalled, the response is effortless. ''Barcarole'' is typical salon music with an added pinch of saccharin (the aftertaste may be objectionable to some, of course); ''Sebastian's Dance'' is bittersweet, too—a languorous waltz, long-limbed and sexy, best of all is Menotti's wistful denouement the lovers reunited in sacrifice, a haunting ''Pavanne'' glimpsed rather in the manner of Stravinsky's Apollo through the mists of time: thoroughly contemporary but with an archaic classical grace.
Barber's Souvenir haunts the ballroom of some grand hotel—somewhere, sometime, probably around 1914. Nostalgia is the watchword here: the opening ''Waltz'' implies La valse without the menace, there is a touch of old-world sleekness about all the scoring. And most accomplished it is crafty and quirky in the character dances (soured by many a knowing harmonic side-step), gorgeously overripe as the ''Tango'' arrives at its grand reprise, horns flaring; the ''Pas de Deux'' is vintage Barber, whose longing is spun out through an exquisite parade of grateful woodwind solos.
Andrew Schenck's New Zealanders are not found wanting, and, let us be clear, the success of this music is so much in the enjoyment of the performers. Three morsels from the perrenial Amahl complete the package: Menotti's lovely opening pages are an appetizing reminder of its melodic tinta, making one regret that he never saw fit to devise a full symphonic suite from the opera. Decent recording, big-boned and open.'