Following an exceptional release of
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra returns to ballet music with its 2010 recording of The Sleeping Beauty, conducted by
Barry Wordsworth. In many ways a superior work to Swan Lake,
Tchaikovsky's second great ballet boasts a polished score that is filled with sophisticated melodies, lush harmonies, and dazzling orchestration that
Tchaikovsky arguably never surpassed. This double-disc recording presents the most famous selections from the work, which in its full version would run close to four hours, but the reduced version includes all of the best-known dances. Yet as enjoyable as this performance is, it has an underwhelming sound quality that is not as colorful nor as vivid as the recording of Swan Lake, and requires a fairly high volume setting to clearly hear details. For a comparable shortened version,
André Previn's "ballet edition" on EMI gives this twofer serious competition by offering better sound, more tracks, and a much more impressive interpretation. This album is still useful as an introduction for beginners or casual listeners, but devoted admirers of The Sleeping Beauty should only settle for the complete work.