That Novak was a great composer in the tradition of Smetana and Dvorák there can be no doubt whatsoever. Signorina Gioventu is the second of a pair of ballets--the first is Nikotina--that the composer conceived together, one light-hearted and comic, the other (this one) darker and more melancholy. As with it's companion piece, the music is both gorgeously orchestrated and seamlessly crafted. You can listen to it just like a symphony or tone poem--there are no dead spots or passages that seem to make no sense away from the stage, unlike Stravinsky's complete ballets, for example. The tone poem Eternal Longing gives further evidence of the composer's complete mastery of his own expressive, late Romantic musical language. A real find. --David Hurwitz