Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: The Ballets (Swan Lake / The Sleeping Beauty / The Nutcraker)

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

 

 

These are good performances of each of these great ballets. The performances could, however, be a bit more vibrant.

What really ruins this box set is the packaging. EMI bureaucrats decided that rather than running Sleeping Beauty over to a third disc (disc five, by the way, which plays for forty minutes) that they would cut two movements from this great ballet. Presumably these bureaucrats would also cut Joyce's Ulysses in order to bring the book in at the primo manuscript page length in order to keep costs down. Personally, I prefer to hear what the composer wrote in full, rather than what some bureaucrat or some conductor thinks is preferable cost wise or aesthetically.

Once again, boos and hisses to EMI who continually are doing such things (see my review of their Lehar, Merry Widow reissue).

If you are looking for the three ballets Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Nutcraker in a single set, this is the best one out there. DO NOT repeat DO NOT buy Herbert Von Karajan's 60's recording with the Weiner Philharmonic under the cd label of Decca "Legends". That is the worst one. It has excerpts from the ballets rearranged for concert suites. This cd is far superior in that it has the entire ballets in 3 disks. Andre Previn is a marvelous conductor and the London Philharmonic is known the world over. The music of Tchaikovsky comes alive in a colorful and expressive fashion, although not as masterfully rendered as any of the ballets conducted under the baton of Antal Dorati. If you are looking for an individual recording of the Sleeping Beauty or the other ballets(full score in addition to divertissements and variations) get the recordings with Dorati conducting. But the music to these ballets are excellent. You wil love the Swan Lake's powerful main theme, the spell-casting music of the Sleeping Beauty (from the Introduction to the Apotheose) and the festive and lyric Nutcraker. This is the best ballets ever made and by the genius of the man known as Peter I. Tchaikovsky. Viva Tchaikovsky !

What a wonderful set! I am a fan of Tchaikovsky, particularly of the Nutcracker. This set contains all of the music, not just highlights, from these three ballets. But just as importantly, the sound quality is wonderful -- the music is very well performed. I've seen all three of these ballets performed at Lincoln Center, and am impressed by these CDs. The liner notes are quite informative as well.

This collection of the complete ballets is absolutely spectacular. The orchestration, the tempo, the conducting, and the overall quality of music are absolutely immaculate, and have provided me with many hours of delightful entertainment. I particularly love the performance of Swan Lake and the Nutcracker on here. With the Nutcraker, the music really does paint pictures in your heads, of fairies and dancers and sugar plums and flowers etc. etc., and the Pervin's rendition here really does help with that. Wonderul music.

As another reviwer commented, chopping up music for the sake of marketing one less CD is an absolute disgrace. The 3 stars is not for the quality of music (which deserves 5 stars), but rather for a uncultured uncivilized marketers who have commited an absolute travesty by cutting off sections from Swan Lake for the sake of CD space. Regardless, this set is well worth listening to as what is actually on the CD makes it worth the price.

Many of the previous reviewers have been quite correct in criticism of EMI for including an abridged version of The Sleeping Beauty in this box set. What isn't clear, however is if Previn EVER recorded the complete version - if memory serves correctly this is the version released in the 1970s during Previn's heyday as a conductor of the LSO.

Previn was never a firebrand as a conductor. If you are looking for Russian passion, you will not find it in these performances. What you will find, however, is beautifully fluid conducting and gorgeously languid melody. As ballet music it is beautiful, but dances never quite lift off into full flights of terpsichorean fancy. (I apologize for that last sentence - I couldn't resist it). What this means is that in the aforementioned Sleeping Beauty the Prologue and Intro to Scene 5 may be furious and exciting, but the Valse of Act I/6 and Aurora Variations of Act 1/8 do not thrill and make the hairs stand on the back of your neck in the manner that they should. (Peter Ilyich's mastery of ballet music also reflects his weakness as a symphonies. Never at a loss for beautiful melodies, he flung them as beautiful bouquets to his audience, rather than spend the time developing them individually in symphonic form). Still, I do love those symphonies, even 1,2, and 3. (BTW, if your looking for an affordable, exciting set of those symphonies - with somewhat dated sonics - you can't go wrong with Bernstein and the NYP Tchaikovsky: The Complete Symphonies in another great bargain of the CD era. A 5 disc set with the symphonies, the 1812 (another guilty pleasure!) Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet overtures. But I digress.

Why 4 1/2 stars then - and why is this box sitting on my shelf? Because in terms of "bang-for-the-buck" it simply can't be beat. It is currently selling under $20 from any number of amazon re-sellers. To get these ballets - even with the questionable cuts in The Sleeping Beauty - for about $3 apiece is astoundingly good value.

My passion is piano music. If I were evaluating an abridged version of a cycle of Beethoven Sonatas, I would not view it as kindly. So I understand any lovers of ballet music, or Tchaikovsky, who may take umbrage at my advocacy for this set.

But for those of us who want a (fairly) complete set of Tchaikovsky ballets sitting on the shelf to take down and listen to once every so often (and I'd wager it's for Nutcracker in December) this set is one tough deal to beat.

I stand behind my recommendation: 4 1/2 stars!

Andre Previn's complete recordings of Tchaikovsky's 3 full length ballets (Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty) may not be as authentic as those by Russian ensembles, nor as splendidly recorded as more recent releases, nor quite as spectacular or provacative as others. But I don't think there is a better way for the cost conscious shopper to get complete recordings of all 3 works for a good price without a significant sacrifice in musical or engineering quality. Previn's conducting is very reliable in all three ballets. He never over-indulges in spectacularism or exotic tempos, but he is also far from "plain and dull". And EMI made an excellent choice to include the superior earlier London Symphony Orchestra Nutcracker rather than the more recent recording Previn made with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (also for EMI). In all 3 ballets EMI's engineers capture a good balance of orchestral detail, realistic sound stage, and adequate reverberation to make the recordings highly enjoyable, even for fussy audiophiles like me.

Overall an excellent choice for collectors serious and otherwise.

Tchaikovsky's three ballets may well be his finest works. Each of these ballets -- Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker -- is a masterpiece of melody, orchestration, and compelling atmosphere. Together they represent a body of music of such a level of genius as to be worthy to stand with such other great collections as Beethoven's symphonies and Chopin's piano music. The performances of these ballets conducted by Andre Previn are outstanding -- only Richard Bonynge can compete with Previn in this reperoire. If you like music from the height of the Romantic era -- or simply great music, regardless of era -- treat yourself to this outstanding set.

This is fine as a bargain, but there's a lot more that can be done with these works. In all his Tchaikovsky ballet performances Previn sounds correct and sensible, but in that virtue he misses a lot more. There isn't a grian of passion or fire in this performance and not much buoyancy or fun, either. I guess you could call tis a very English approach to the music, and UK critics seem to like Previn a great deal in Tchaikovsky. I think you need to go Russian, or Ansermet, or Monteux, or Karajan for the suites.

Dreadfully dull is one word that comes to mind,and the london symphony come across to me as cold and empty,thank andre previn for that,the tempos to me sound to stiff and his phrasing is awful at times and emi sound is kinda crappy too,these are great masterworks that deserve a lot better results,i still think charles dutoit and montreal symphony (london decca)cd of swan lake is still the best version around,ivan march from grammophone loved the dutoit swan lake cd too,and there nutcracker is really good too.