Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker (Complete Ballet)/ Sleeping Beauty Suite

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

 

 

The Suite from The Nutcracker has become so familiar and frankly overused today, especially at Christmastime, that it is rare to hear a recording that doesn't either plod through the work with boredom from too many playings or try to compensate with false enthusiasm. This, however, is a recording that restores the true beauty to all of the most familiar numbers in The Nutcracker and gives new life into the less well-known (though equally beautiful) ones as well. The traditionally known dances "Trépak" and "Valse des Fleurs" sparkle with all the shimmer that they deserve. The lesser-known portions of the ballet, such as the Danse Groß-Vater are equally well executed. Particularly noteworthy is the exquisite harp work, especially the cadenza to the Valse and throughout the Pas de Deux. The sonority of the Boston Symphony is exploited to its full potential in the larger scenes, especially the climaxes in the Pas de Deux and the battle between the Nutcracker-Prince and the Rat King. The final Valse et Apothéose is masterfully executed.The Suite from La Belle au Bois Dormant is executed with all the flair found in the Nutcracker. The entire work is extremely attentive to detail, which is not to say that it lacks the quirky nature very much present in Le chat botté et la chatte blanche music. The ever-popular final Valse is appropriately grand as well. I am usually quick to find fault, and after listening to this recording many times, I can find very little not to reccommend.

These are wonderful performances captured in excellent sound by the DG label. The complete Nutcracker is perhaps Seiji Ozawa finest recorded performance of any work, and the Sleeping Beauty Suite is equally distinguished. The Boston Symphony rise to the ocassion and show what a truly great orchestra they are. The Penguin Guide inexplicably neglects this version for some unknown reason. I've rarely heard the whole score played so vividly and sensitively, with the melodies just flowing everywhere. If you are only familiar with the Nutcracker Suite, I urge you to hear the rest. Every tune becomes memorable as played on this recording. In particular the Waltz of the Flowers has rarely had such bloom, and you can clearly hear every section of the orchestra. This recording, in my opinion, rivals the Kirov Orchestra/Gergiev on the Philips label. The speeds with Ozawa are a bit slower, but the impact is equally moving. One note for the cost conscious buyer: This set is now available in Europe (although curiously not in the US) as a 2 for the price of 1 set (also includes Ozawa's San Francisco recording of Romeo and Juliet). I urge you to shop around and if you are in the habit of buying online you can probably order this from an online company based in the UK for significantly less than it is going for here, probably because the full price set is still selling so well in the States. It is my hope that Amazon will make some of these "import" versions available online too.

This recording came as an extremely pleasant surprise to me. The collaboration of Ozawa and Boston has been variable on disc, with probably more misses than hits over the years, but these Tchaikovsky recordings are pretty much all that one could wish for. There is charm and warmth aplenty, aided and abetted by an ideally warm DG recording that captures what I've heard in Symphony Hall, Boston, better than just about any other I've sampled. But charm isn't everything: here, the battle with the Mouse King and the livelier dances from Act I and the Divertissement have an energy and verve that are a joy to hear. Inclusion of the best bits from Sleeping Beauty, ravishingly played again, makes this a very fine Tchaikovsky ballet sampler, despite stiff competition on CD.

As a Boston regular and a non-fan of Ozawa's, I'm surprised to report that this gorgeously played Nutcracker from 1990 is among his real successes on disc. He led a bloodless and bland Swan Lake, but here is one of the more committed readings of the socre I'vve heard. DG provides full, warm side if rather lacking in inner detail, and the BSO is in top form -- I doubt the score has ever been better played on disc. The approach is definitely symphonic -- it lacks the dancing rhythms of Zinman's 1993 version with the NY City Ballet Orch. -- but I reveled in the plushness. The filler is the usual Suite of five numbers from Sleeping Beauty. Recommended even to Ozawa skeptics.

3 stars is enough.Seiji gave us no thrilling,no enthusiamus.And the sound seems too dry.No soundeffect is added,so the whole recording is flat and dull.I really regret having bought it.