Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake | John Sant'Ambrogio, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, ...

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake | John Sant'Ambrogio, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, ... | Buy it for the orchestral playing!

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Tchaikovsky: Swan ...

	Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake John Sant'Ambrogio, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, ... RCA, 1989 average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Surely "as good as it gets"!

This is yet another thoroughly enchanting performance of a Tchaikovsky ballet by Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (see also their performance of The Nutcracker)! As we would expect, the conducting and musicianship are outstanding, and RCA's engineering is exceptional, resulting in a gratifyingly expansive and well-balanced sound stage (on any quality audio setup). The booklet's notes are remarkably thorough and informative, not to mention pleasing. You could spend more and have the latest CD release of this venerable masterpiece, but I doubt that this RCA edition has been appreciably surpassed. Spring for it!

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Buy it for the orchestral playing!

Dorati + Swan Lake = magic (even in mono on Mercury with Minneapolis). Slatkin + Swan Lake = fine performance. But the orchestral playing is the real star here, leaving many a recorded version, including Dorati (and esp. Abravanel's) totally in the dust. I can listen to this just to wallow in the string tone. I wish Slatkin had brought just a tiny bit more to the score; then this would be a recording for the century. Competition is tough out there, esp. when the likes of Previn on EMI has been released, too. A worthy recording, nonetheless

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