I read somewhere that for his "Giselle" 1884 revival, Petipa comissioned Minkus to create the music for a new Act I Giselle/Albrecht PDD, specially for the ballerina Maria Gorshenkova. Is this PDD still included in any of the current productions...?, I also read that in 1978, the choreographer Gerald Arpino used this Minkus's rarely heard music for his ballet "L'air D'esprit" staged for the Joffrey Ballet. Anybody familiar with it...? Any advise of where to get this music...?

I believe that this interpolation was included in a recording of the ballet by Algis Zuraitis and the Bolshoi Orchestra made sometime in the early 70s. I don't know if it's currently available anywhere.

L'AIR D'ESPRIT was telecast w/the joffrey ballet in a program sent out from art park, as follows:

The Joffrey Ballet live from Artpark 1978. 120 min.
Telecast on WNET-TV on August 30, 1978 from Artpark in Lewiston, New York. Producer: Wiley F. Hance. Director: Emile Ardolino.
Performed by the Joffrey Ballet and guest artist Rebecca Wright.
Les patineurs; chor: Frederick Ashton; mus: Meyerbeer arr. by Constant Lambert; scen and cos: William Chappell; lighting: Jennifer Tipton; danced by Lisa Slagle, Ann Marie De Angelo, Ursula Burke, Laurence Blake, Carol Messmer, John Grensback, Susan Stewart, Jeffrey Hughes, Carole Valleskey, Gregory King, Mark Goldweber, Denise Jackson, Gregory Huffman, Cynthia Anderson, and Patricia Miller. -- Interview with David Midland and Joanne Allison of Artpark. -- Interview with Gerald Arpino. Valentine; chor: Gerald Arpino; mus: Jacob Druckman; danced by Rebecca Wright and Christian Holder. -- L'air d'esprit; chor: Gerald Arpino; mus: Adolphe Adam; cos: A. Christina Giannini; ltg: Penelope Curry; danced by Francesca Corkle and Kevin McKenzie. Interview with Robert Joffrey. -- Cakewalk; chor: Ruthanna Boris; mus: Louis Gottschalk; scen: William Pitkin; cos: Robert Drew; ltg: Thomas Skelton; danced by Diane Orio, Denise Jackson, Cynthia Anderson, Christian Holder, Krystyna Jurkowski, Carole Valleskey, Rachel Ganteaume, Laurence Blake, Philip Jerry, Jerel Hilding, Paul Shoemaker, Ursula Burke, Amy Danis, Susan Frazer, Donna Gowen, Carol Messmer, Beatriz Rodriguez, Trinette Singleton, Ellen Troy, Gregory King, John Grensback, Gary Chryst, Lisa Slagle, Charlene Gehm.

and i believe mel is correct about the bolshoi recording.
if mem. serves some of the music interpolated into act 1 of the bavarian ballet's staging of GISELLE w/ nureyev and seymour uses some of this music.
a chart compliled by frank reis(sp?) for a DANCE MAGAZINE insert on GISELLE details some of this music's interpolations.

Thank you, Mel, for your always helpful information. Will do some research to see if i can get this Bolshoi/Zuraitis recording somewhere.
Thank you also, Mr. G, for your detailed description of the telecast.

Mmm, now i'm confused...music by Adam or by Minkus...?

will take a look at my old VHS, but yes, i always took noticed of the Giselle/Albrecht dancing of this production as longer than usual, but i thought that it was the Rudy's usual extra-steps approach on choreography ...(BTW, never came out on DVD...?)

Will definitely try to search for it...

Again, thank you both , as always, for your valuable information!

Oh, that pas de deux is by Minkus all right. It does things harmonically and melodically that Adam would never have done. Remember, we're talking about a piece of music that was recorded ca. 1973, and scholarship in ballet music at that time almost entirely consisted of believing the album credits. I remember hearing that music for the first time, thinking "No way that's Adam," and scanning the liner notes for a source, which wasn't given.

here's the NYPL cat. entry on the GISELLE folio/insert from DANCE MAGAZINE:

Ries, Frank W. D. In search of Giselle: "travels with a chameleon romantic."
Dance magazine. New York. Aug 1979, p [59]-74. illus
Traces changes in the ballet from its original production in 1841 to the present. Chart (p. 72-73) compares score of 1841 Paris production with the 1888 St. Petersburg version.

re: the zuraitis recording, i don't know if it's been re-released on CD but it's on vinyl and used compies sometimes come up for sale. i don't recall ever seeing the same recording on CD for resale.

Marion Smith's excellent book on GISELLE also notes what recording contain which 'lost' music: BALLET AND OPERA IN THE AGE OF 'GISELLE' by Marian Smith (Princeton University Press).

the attached .jpg is a scan of the liner notes for the zuraitis recording of GISELLE. (according to this text, signed by Karolynne Gee, "Musical interpolations by other composers had been introduced into the original score long before 1887 [the year of Petipa's last? restaging] when Petipa asked Leon Minkus, resident composer at the Maryinsky, to write additional music for Giselle's first act variation (No. 7) and for her second variation in the 'Grand Pas de Deux' (No. 15)." [the notes then go on to note the addition from the start of Burgmuller's 'peasant' pas de deux.]
oddly, no specific mention of the 'pas de deux' (No. 4) .
fyi:

In the Giselle recording of Bonynge there is a pas de vendanges that is a piece that I have only seen in a shortend version of the Seymour and Nureyev film recording. Is this the pas de deux that you are talking about or was it from Adam?