Canter Bridge

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.

I begin my review of this splendid cd with a slice of musical heresy: listening to a ballet with no dancers on a stage in front of you is inevitably a partial experience. Perhaps its closest analogy is listening to film music, which presents lush harmonies and brilliant dramatic effect. But if you’ve never seen the film, you miss something. This is because music written to accompany ballet and music composed to embellish a film are inescapably programmatic. They depend to some degree on the thing they accompany.

OK, I’m over that.

André Previn and the LSO are at their typical wonderful selves in this recording. In SLEEPING BEAUTY, Tchaikovsky is at his most changeful and malleable. The score he has produced is something of an artistic institution; these musicians respect it and perform it in just that way.

Tchaikovsky lovers—like this reviewer—will enjoy familiar mechanisms and discern the development of a hugely familiar passage long before it finally sees the light in its canonical and popularly-recognized form.

This is all great stuff, even if its beauty is accessible only to ears and no eyes.

I just miss the ballet. In its intended context, Tchaikovsky and his music become worthy of their enduring fame. Alone, the music a recording, the listener esconced in a car or office or living room, something is missing.

The dancers.