Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (complete ballet)

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

 

 

This Swan Lake, now offered at super-bargain price, was one of Sawallisch's better ventures in Philadelphia. The orchestra is superlative, the recorded sound quite good, and Sawallishc's conducting fairly spirited. He is by nature a foursquare interpreter, so this Swan Lake doesn't dance as lightly or vivaciously as it might. Even so, I can see why someone would be enthusiastic about it.

There's lots of competition in the bargain range, however. In fact, front-line versions are often low priced, including Ozawa with the BSO on DG and Ansermet with his Suisse Romande orchestra on Decca. I would say that the overly refined Ozawa ranks about equal with Sawallisch, and the Boston Sym. certainly plays exquisitely. Dorati with Minneapolis on Mercury is more balletic, but his set is in mono and the orchestra suonds scrappy next to great ensembles like the Philadelphians (the price of the Dorati is higher, too).

Andre Previn gives a solid, middle-of-the-road reading on EMI with the London Sym., and he is never as dull as Slatkin on RCA with the St. Louis Sym., another bargain release that rarely gets off the ground--strange, since this is easy music to conduct if you have a lively beat.

I own or have heard all of them, and the most stylish and exciting is the Ansermet set, offered on a Decca two-fer that needs remastering to take off the digital edge but is otherwise an outstanding example of ballet conducting at its best. By comparison, the glossy Sawallisch reading is conventional and earthbound.

P.S. Dec. 2007 - After writing this review I ran across a lively, robust reading form Viktor Fedotov and the Maryinsky Orch., which outdoes all the above recommendations. It competes nicely with the new Gergiev reading with the same orchestra, labeled as Kirov, on Decca.

Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake remains a ballet favorite and a powerful star vehicle for the prima ballerina who must dance the roles of two characters- the "white swan" Odette and the black swan Odile, good and evil. Swan Lake has been recorded many times by celebrated conductors and their orchestras - Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra (here it's Wolfgang Sawallisch and the same orchestra from an earlier period) Canadian Charles Dutroit and the Montreal forces, Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra, Richard Bonynge better known for his operatic vehicles with his wife Joan Sutherland, Antal Dorati and his orchestra, and even Herbert Von Karajan joined the band wagon of conducting great ballets- he conducted the complete Giselle and a concert suite of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker.

Wolfgang Sawallisch was a brilliant conductor, and unfortunately like so many conductors in Karajan's time, he was underappreciated. This Swan Lake is beautifully restored and sounds fresh, powerful and lyrical. The music for Swan Lake has symphonic qualities, with a contrast of serene and jovial dances and melancholy and even fatalistic themes. The Dance of the Little Swans is bouncy and cheery, the violin solos for Odette's solo dances are almost mournful (she's mourning her swan condition/curse) and the Swan Theme is powerful and stormy, borrowed from the last notes to a Wagner's Lohengrin prelude. For these reasons critics did not initially warm up to the "heavy" music of Swan Lake. But eventually it became the most beautiful of the "ballet-blancs" ever made. Other "white tutu" ballets include Giselle (Act 2 the Willis) and La Bayadere (Act 2 The Land of Shades). The music is to die for in this recording and I highly recommend it.

If you have read any of my reviews you know that I am a Philadelphia Orchestra worshiper. Well this recording will show anyone why. I have always owned and listened to ( in fact just receive a wonderful recording with Muti and the PO of suites from San Lake and Sleeping Beauty)recorded suites where only the dramatic parts are performed with symphonic gusto.

This was a recording of the ballet! I had never heard a complete performance before. I know that there have to be beautiful recordings out there of this work, but hearing the Philadelphia Orchestra in all its power and glory was astonishing.

The remastering is so beautiful. You are there. You just don't hear the patter of footsteps from the dancers, but I was imagining it as I listened.

The performance is joyous when called for, trajic and powerfully so and, above all, majestice in the end. The strings in their polished sheeny glory and the brass-wow! I almost thought that I was listening to the Dresden Statskapelle brass section all over again.

I could go on and on and write about every dance and movement, but just let me say that this recording, for any Tchaikovsky lover, and music lover who wants to build their library or starting an adventure into classical music, is an absolute must!

Get it!! You wont be sorry.

In my opinion, the greatest of Tchaikovsky's three ballets is "Le Lac des Cynges (Swan Lake)" (Op. 20). This ballet is the longest and the most interesting, exhilirating, and beautiful music he has ever written.

This recording of Swan Lake is the best one I've heard so far. This recording has excellent sound quality, the cymbals are loud, and the echoing effect is perfect. If you are a ballet fan like me, you will like--no--love this recording of Swan Lake. The speed is perfect, not too fast, and not too slow. I think that this recording would make an excellent addition to anyone's ballet collection.

Love the CD (it has two rare favs of mine... the faster Black Swan Variation and the extended Russian Dance) however, I was shocked not to find Black Swan Pas de Deux. How can you have a COMPLETE Swan Lake recording and not include that?!?!?!

I enjoyed this cd because all the other "complete versions" had parts missing. To my big surprise, this also has a big cut in it concerning the music for the black swan. I was, to say the least, a bit taken aback because of this, but comparing the time on these discs, this version surpasses any other in length so I guess I'm satisfied as well as miffed. This rendition is clear, crisp, and moves at a the correct pace a very good recording. You can't beat it for the price that its being sold for.

Herbert Von Karajan comes to mind. Slow. No sense of the arc of the entire dance, but rather a series of orchestral pieces that are played mostly mezzo forte, with limited drama and zero spontaneity. In sum, the performance fails to realize the composer's intentions. I purchased the recording based on the reviews here, but will be giving it away as a gift. I may try again with Bonynge's recording, which is said to be more balletic, or continue to look into the more obscure Russian recordings.

Recipe for success:
take one of the most gorgeous ballet scores ever written,
add the velvet-like strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra
and WOW! -- a wonderful, lovely, hard-to-resist version of
this classic. I never get tired of this music! One splendid
tune and dance after another! If you don't already have a
recording, this one is not only a great bargain, but a great deal!

This is quite possibly one of the best recordings of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". I received this recording as a gift several years ago, and fell in love with it immediately. I also received another recording a week earlier by Seiji Ozawa and listened to that as well since it is the most popular version on iTunes, but this recording tops it, hands down.

The amount of detail from the recording is stunning, absolutely stunning. I found that each note is carefully played clearly and fully, allowing for a rich, full bodied sound, while keeping a refined pace that is still very up tempo and exhilirating. Listening to this, especially on a good sound system, but even with a good pair of headphones, is utterly enchanting, drawing in the listener with the soft tones at the beginning and then blowing him/her away with the dramatic quality of the music. I have heard many good recordings from the Philidelphia Orchestra, and next to "Fantasia," this has to be the most dramatic and beautiful recording.

The piece itself is wonderful, easily being Tchaikovsky's most dramatic, and in my opinion, best work. The tension in the main theme, especially in the final scene is sheer genius and beauty. The fact that the ballet has a main theme is almost nonexistent in his other works, which end in the typical Grand Waltz with everything being perfectly happy and all the characters bowing, and the dramatic ending where the lovers Siegfried and Odette die together is what makes this his most original piece as well.

The chords at the beginning of the first scene and the "Goblet Dance" ring of joy and create perhaps the most enjoyable themes ever written by Tchaikovsky (next to the "Waltz of the Flowers"). The final two scenes of the ballet, the last two tracks on CD 2, are extremely dramatic, and when I first listened to them, I found myself crying from being overwhelmed from the dramatic nature of the music. When the chords of the main theme appear at the end, one feels the pain and suffering of the two characters, and leaves the listener saddened yet begging for more.

Although I originally wanted to receive Valery Gergiev's version of the piece since I find his "Nutcracker" and "Sleeping Beauty" to be among the most authentic, I found this much more dramatic and perfect than his version. If anyone is looking for an enjoyable experience with Tchaikovsky, look no further than this, for even live performances I've seen cannot come close to rivalling the sheer beauty of this recording.

"Swan Lake" has great meaning for me. I used to rent LPs and would play them in the basement of Fine Arts on the University of Georgia campus. This was in the '50s. There is nothing as soothing as "Swan Lake."