# Tchaikovsky Ballets



## Jordan Law (Jul 17, 2014)

Hello 

One of my favourite composers is of course Tchaikovsky. For some time now, I have been wanting to purchase a CD set of his most famous ballets: Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. However, a lot of them available only are excepts and not the entire ballets. Is there any CD set out there that has all three complete ballets? 

Thank you


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

You can find better individual versions of each ballet buying them separately, but yes for the budget minded consumer there are a couple of box sets that include all three ballets. 

There's a set on Deutche Grammophon conducted by Valery Gergiev, there's a set on Decca/London conducted by Richard Bonynge and there's a set on EMI conducted by Andre Previn. 

Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra are more Symphonic in some respects. More stylish with more focus on beauty. His Nutcracker is one of the best.

Richard Bonynge is more heavy handed at times. His tempos are usually a bit slower. His Nutcracker is also his best.

Valery Gergiev is popular and more recently recorded than the others but his Swan Lake uses a different score which cuts things and moves things around that I do not care for.

My personal preference between the three would be Andre Previn.

If you decided to go for individual accounts I might suggest these as they can be easily found and usually are fairly inexpensive.

Nutcracker: Antal Dorati on Philips Duo (Includes Complete Nutcracker & Sleeping Beauty Highlights)

Sleeping Beauty: Antal Dorati on Philips Duo (Complete Sleeping Beauty) 

Swan Lake: Leonard Slatkin on RCA (Out of print but can be gotten very cheaply 2nd hand and is not hard to find) or for something in print you can also easily find Seiji Ozawa's recording on Deutche Grammophon with the Boston Symphony Orchestra which is also very good.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

LOL! A while back, I bought Gergiev's "Sleeping Beauty" cheaply through Amazon Marketplace. Thank God, Disc 2 was defective and I got my money back. I couldn't stand hearing him sing/hum/grunt along with the orchestra.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Gennady Rozhdestvensky* with the BBC Symphony in "Sleeping Beauty" is excellent.
For Swan Lake: *Svetlanov* and USSR State Symphony Orchestra.
For The Nutcracker: *Sir Charles Mackerras *and the London Symphony, *Gergiev* & the Kirov Orchestra, or as Realdealblues suggested, *Richard Bonynge *and the National Philharmonic Orchestra.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I have the Dorati, Previn and Naxos. Dorati and Previn are a tiny bit better, but the Naxos (Mongrelia I think?) is very good too. I don't care for Gergiev. His Nutcracker is WAY too fast.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I have Sleeping Beauty with Gergiev. Not wild about it.


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