2009 2X CD reissue of the 1974 release. Sleeping Beauty, the most ambitious of Tchaikovsky's three ballet scores, was premiered in 1890 with choreography by Marius Petipa. It opens with an evocation of opposing magical forces, the ferocious wicked fairy Carabosse and the benign Lilac Fairy, and the flowing Waltz and haunting Rose Adagio are just two of it's many jewels. This recording by the London Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn tells the magical story with finesse & symphonic splendor.

This is a 2009 Reissue of the 1987 remastered version of the release. The violent feud between the Montagues and Capulets is evoked by the swaggering Dance of the Knights, but Prokofiev's score brims with bittersweet lyricism in it's depiction of the young lovers, proving him Russian ballet's heir to Tchaikovsky. First performed in 1938, Romeo & Juliet has become the supreme full length ballet of the 20th century. It's many facets are captured in this classic recording by the London Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn.

No performer on the world stage received so much acclaim and publicity as Rudolf Nureyev, and no one gave away so little about their private life and thinking. In this definitive documentary made some twelve months before his death in 1993.

A breath-taking ensemble performance of Marius Petipa's popular Don Quixote by Minkus, loosely based on Cervantes famous novel, from the world-renowned Mariinsky Ballet. The Mariinsky's top principal male, Leonid Sarafanov gives another virtuosic yet elegent performance.

From the exquisite elegance of Swan Lake to the riot-inducing dissonance of the Rite of Spring, these 5 CDs highlight the astonishing variety of colors, moods and tonalities that lie within the world of ballet music. Excerpts of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake; Sleeping Beauty, and the Nutcracker and Stravinsky's entire Firebird and the Rite of Spring join Romeo and Juliet (excerpts) Prokofiev; Faust: Ballet Music; Act 2 "Waltz" Gounod; Coppelia Delibes, and Les Sylphides Chopin.

Marcia Haydee and Ivan Liska star in this Hamburg Ballet production of the Chopin/John Neumeier ballet.

Throughout his career Fritz Reiner showed a particular affinity for the music of Richard Strauss. Here he delivers an exceptionally vivid account of Don Quixote – each bizarre episode from the eccentric knight’s adventures is portrayed with razor-sharp insight. One notices, in particular, Reiner’s miraculous attention to detail, his unfailing grip on the structural direction of the work and the superb response from both soloist and orchestra. With its flashes of sardonic wit, the earlier Burleske makes for an excellent coupling, and illustrates Reiner’s formidable prowess as a concerto accompanist. By any standards, a self-recommending issue.
Performance: 5 (out of 5); Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

2009 2X CD remaster. Enchanting, full of pathos and with it's serpentine waltzes & nightmarishly urgent clock sometimes unnerving, Prokofiev's Cinderella conjures up the enticing, ambiguous world of fairy tales. First performed in Moscow in 19745, the ballet was an immediate triumph. The debut of Raymonda, set at the time of the Crusades, took place nearly 50 years earlier in St. Petersburg. Glazunov's colorful score incorporates elements from Hungary, Spain and the Middle East.

The prizewinning French composer Laurent Petitgirard has earned acclaim for his unusually powerful theatrical imagination. His strikingly creative ballet score for Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) was first performed at the Avignon Opera in May 2010. Petitgirard centres his score around a chorus, alternating instrumental sonorities to remarkable effect, and evoking the essence of Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry's text in it's movement from dream to reality, and from mystery to innocence.

La Scala Ballet’s new, modern-dress staging of the classic Roland Petit ballet on Victor Hugo’s timeless tale of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Two world superstars take the lead roles–Natalia Osipova (Bolshoi Ballet, now Royal Ballet) and Roberto Bolle (La Scala Ballet). Music is by the great film composer, Maurice Jarre, with costumes from international designer, Yves Saint-Laurent. This was a major worldwide live cinema relay from La Scala in spring 2013.

Talbot: The Winter's Tale

CINEMA CLASSICS, Vol. 12

Shiro Fukai (1907-1959) is barely known in the West. Born in the far north of Japan and in ill-health as a young man, he had the leisure to memorize scores he was able to obtain from a library. He eventually studied with the French-influenced composer Meiro Sugahara, only ten years his senior. He tended not to be particularly interested in Japanese musical influences, preferring to imitate music by Ravel and others. The 'Four Parodies for Orchestra' are imitative of the music of and dedicated to Falla, Stravinsky, Ravel and Roussel. By far the most successful is the limpid Ravel movement (No. 3) which features a very Ravelian flute solo that is reminiscent of the second movement of Ravel's G major piano concerto. 'Cr�ation' is a 1940 ballet that sounds more like Roussel. In it's three movements it supposedly limns 'The Birth of the Gods,' 'The Birth of Living Things' and 'The Birth of Humans.'

Music For You: Prokofiev — Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (Excerpt

Riccardo Muti is, of course, a noted Tchaikovskian, and this admirable performance of The Fairy's Kiss approximates the tone and lustre of The Sleeping Beauty ballet.

Tchaikovsky was as much a part of Stravinsky's creative consciousness as Mozart was of Tchaikovsky's. All three composers meet in Le baiser de la fée ("The Fairy's Kiss"; 1928), where Tchaikovsky is at his most overtly Mozartian and Stravinsky at his most elegantly balletic. The score is based largely on Tchaikovsky piano pieces and songs; it was commissioned by the dancer Ida Rubinstein, while sections of it were later selected for a separate work, Divertimento, that went on to achieve rather more popularity than the complete ballet. More recordings, too; some of them of exceptional quality.

Riccardo Muti is, of course, himself a noted Tchaikovskian, and this admirable performance approximates the tone and lustre of, say, The Sleeping Beauty ballet. The very opening has lovingly stressed string accents and a feeling of 'miracles in the offing'. The ensuing Allegro sostenuto is more playful than biting, and while I would have welcomed a keener edge in the third section of Scene I (track 3) and a rather less. sedate approach to the ensuing Vivace agitato, the "Village Fête" is properly buoyant, the third scene's "By the Mill" nicely atmospheric (how utterly Tchaikovskian those oboes and clarinets) and the penultimate "Scene", with its painfully nostalgic references to None but the lonely heart, is played with appealing restraint. Still, it is at that point in particular that memories of Mravinsky's searing 1983 broadcast prompt a quick rush to the shelves, even though imperfect sound and the occasional technical slip-up preclude total rapture. Stravinsky, too, is memorable, a tighter, drier and occasionally more incisive option, while Järvi's characterization and superior sound serve to bolster a third option - and that is about the limit of the competition, at least for the moment. Muti's La Scala strings are sweetly expressive, whereas his winds and brass are not quite in the top league.

The sound is warm, enclosed and scrupulously balanced, a fairly intimate experience, quite appropriate to the music. Ultimately, I would place Muti more or less on a par with Järvi, but not quite the equal either of Mravinsky or of the composer himself.

As to the BartOk Two Pictures, Muti's performance of "In full flower" traces a romantic strain to contrast with Boulez's Debussian axis (see above). Bluebeard is obviously close to hand while the "Village dance" is sleek, witty and very well played, with not much in the way of a native Hungarian accent. It is a good performance and makes for an attractive, if somewhat unexpected, coupling for a worthy Baiser de la fée.

-- Robert Cowan, Gramophone [9/1995]

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Op. 20a & The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 6

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE VOL 1

Eidola

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Orch. Ravel) - Rimsky

The Movers Ballet performs with vocal soloists Antonella Balducci, Ruben Amoretti, and Furio Zanasi in this Stravinsky ballet with Muhai Tang conducting the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana.

This ballet in 2 acts and 6 scenes was created by George Balanchine to music by Mendelssohn based on a story by Shakespeare. The Pacific Northwest Ballet performs with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Cynthia Fleming, Libby Crabtree, and Judith Harris.

Designed to be the follow up to the best-selling 2012 'Ballets for Children' box set, Fairytale Ballets collects performances from the Paris Opera Ballet and Dutch National Ballet troupes of some of the most popular ballets in the repertory: Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Cinderella and Copp�lia. With a handsomely bound box and individual slipcases for each ballet featuring a specially-commissioned cover illustration from the artist that designs the covers for the top-selling Terry Pratchett fantasy novels. Intended to specifically appeal to the 10-16 age group, but all fans of these immortal ballets will find much to be compelled by with this budget priced box set.

Classical Music

Classical Music