Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Ballet Suites

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Outstanding versions of Tchaikovsky's three popular ballet suites. The Berlin Philharmonic is in glowing form and Mstislav Rostropovich on the rostrum sounds inspired as none else. Warmly and dynamically recorded, with plenty of orchestral detail, this thrilling disc may stand as a criterion from the analogue era.
If you only need the suites, or if you think this music no longer holds any surprises for you, this is the CD to go for. Highly recommended.

Through recommendations from several guides on classical music, I got to listen to this record, and of course the music itself is glorious, truely delightful and all of that. As long as you stay focused on the slow parts, you have no trouble appreciating this record. The problem starts when the more vigorous parts set in. Then it is revealed that the nice moderato slows are combined with much too fastly played quick tempi. The same can be said about the 3 last symphonies by the same composer, conducted by Karajan in the Double Decca version.

I didn't expect this to happen with Rostropovich here, because of the good reviews, but also because of his Russian roots. I would have thought he was well able to convey the true Russian feeling in this work. Sadly enough, it really just is a very bad-balanced piece of playing, which is not to be accounted on the BPO, but as Haitink once said: "There are no bad orchestras, just bad conductors."

I'm afraid this here is the case with this recording. Rostropovich is likely to be better off with Cello concertos (playing or conducting - for a fine example check out his first recording with Korean prodigy Han-Na Chang).

For a better choice of Tsjaikovsky's masterpieces, I'd go for Previn and the LSO (EMI) or Karajan and the VPO (in his younger years on Decca). You'd be much more satisfied.

These excerpts of Mstislav Rostropovich's recordings of 3 of Tschaikowsky's most familiar ballets were recorded a short time after he emigrated to the West. The digitally remastered recording lends a crispness that might have taken away some warmth, but nonetheless still conveys the broad range of emotions felt with a Tschaikowsky ballet. The Berliner Phil recording sweeps one from pensiveness to lightness to excitement to a furious crescendo and finally bringing one back to ground with the soothing Flower Waltz. Highly recommended.

Rostropovich came into prominance as one of the premier cellists in the world. Who would ever have thought that he would also make an incredible conductor. It's quite common nowadays to see a pianist move from the bench to the podium, but it's a rare spectacle to see a cellist become maestro. In this case, however, it worked wonderfully. These three recordings of Tchaikovsky's three most famous ballet suites are incomparable. Rostropovich is somehow able to get the Berliners to play like there's no tomorrow. The emotional depth that the BPO elicits from their instruments is incomparable. If I had to choose a highlight it would have to be the Sleeping Beauty Suite, but the decision is very difficult to make. Just listen to this disc. The pieces are essential to any classical collection so may as well get this version, which is quite simply the very best available.

The interpretations and performances of the suites from "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty" are adequate, but the orchestra remains heavy throughout, and the technical aspects of the recording do nothing to enhance whatever subtleties may have existed in the studio setting. Beyond that, "The Nutcracker" has definitely been played much, much better. In the Overture alone, there is weird slurring in the strings when every note ought to be crisp and clean. The miniature nature of this suite needs extra care, and should be rendered much lighter. I would recommend Sir Charles Mackerras's performance with the LSO, either the excerpts or the complete ballet, then create your own suite by burning the eight tracks onto another CD, or putting them in order in a playlist on your mp3 player. For the other two suites, I have no recommendations yet, so this recording may suffice if you aren't picky.

An excellent choice if you want all three suites together, along with an inspired performance. Rostropovich brings a freshness to these scores, and very often I heard detail I haven't heard before. My one caveat is there is some harshness at climaxes and louder passages and the sound lacks a bit of warmth. I prefer the sound and performance of these suites by Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic on Decca as part of "The Decca Sound" reissues, but you can hardly go wrong with either.

For those who can live without the full ballets and only want the suites, they don't come any better than this, with gorgeous playing, marvellous nuances, superb pacing, and excellent recorded sound. Old Rostropovich can sure conduct as well as play the cello better than anyone who ever lived. First class classical CD.

First and foremost, let the obvious be stated: Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker", the Suite in particular, is one of the all-time greatest pieces of music of any kind ever composed anywhere, PERIOD. The sheer beauty of the melodies, the mystical magnetism of the harmony, the gorgeous colorations of the orchestration, make The Nutcracker an all-time classic of human endeavor, from the era when it wasn't embarrassing to create Art that is BEAUTIFUL. Since early childhood, this writer is in a rapturous state every time I hear it. The great Russian romantic composers really knew how to convey a rich world of emotion through the orchestra. This recording, then, like virtually any recording of this masterpiece (as well as "Swan Lake" etc.), deserves 6 stars by virtue of the compositions themselves, before we even consider the interpretations of the conductor and the musicians. That said, there is something that bothers me about this recording. Although I can't prove it, and although I'm only an "amateur" audio engineer, and although Deutsche Grammophon is historically a highly reputable and well-respected label known for excellence in recording, it sounds to me as if some studio tampering went on in the area of dynamics, the rise and fall of the volume levels in the louder and softer portions of the music. The cover notes mention some sort of "dynamic enhancement" that was done. Apparently, some sort of electronic studio compression (or perhaps, "expansion") device was employed during the recording, or more likely, the mastering, of the record, the audible result being that the dynamics are exaggerated, so that the soft passages are very, very soft, and the loud passages very, very loud. The goal at the time was surely to expand the audible dynamic range in the recording. In romantic music, however, where there are sometimes sudden dynamic "leaps" especially from soft to loud, this seems to push the dynamics too far in an unnatural way. And practically, what happens is: if you're listening to a soft passage, such as the very beginning of the Overture or the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, you'll turn up the volume until you can hear it at a reasonable level, then, when a loud passage arrives, it comes swelling up as if someone is literally turning up the volume just as the orchestra does the same, and you'll go running to turn it down. The first time I heard this CD in headphones, I nearly jumped out of my shoes! The performance is good, although my own feeling is that German orchestras tend to sound a bit too "rigid" or "disciplined" for this type of music which needs to "ebb and flow" in an emotional way; perhaps this has to do with conductor Rostropovich's interpretation. Possibly a more recent (="DDD") recording might do more justice to the dynamics inherent in Tchaikovsky's composition without resorting to any sort of studio trickery which robs the recording of its transparency. ***ADD'L NOTE, Mar. 13, 2006: Since writing this review last month, I found a CD copy of the old Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orch. recording, which is an excellent performance albeit not the newest digital sound quality, in a budget-priced ($6.98) series called "Sony Essential Classics". Highly recommended.

Being no expert on such recordings, interested to hear the comments of other reviewers, who state although this is not their favorite, this is very good.

I enjoy the three suites, and the energy and grace displayed from one to the other. This is just exquisite music to play often and sit back and let these magnificent visions created by the music's movement carry one away with swans gliding and flowers spinning.

Opulent sounding, and in many ways excellent, especially in details of the solo playing, I found this a bit prettified and bloodless. I like the Karajan -- who often prettifies but here gets more life -- but good recordings abound.