Unless you have serious a gap to fill in your
Tchaikovsky collection, this reissue by ASV Resonance of excerpts and suites from his three ballets is not an essential item. These 1987 recordings by
Enrique Bátiz and the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were released previously as filler on other discs; while there is no reason why such pieces can't be pulled together to create a whole album, this one feels so incomplete and patched together that it seems like picked-over goods. With only six of the best-known extracts from Swan Lake, only two evergreens from The Sleeping Beauty and the perennial Nutcracker Suite, it makes little economic sense to opt for this retread, especially when more satisfying compilations and recordings of the complete ballets are available at affordable prices from several fine labels. That said, these pared-down performances are intelligently rendered by
Bátiz and the RPO, and the sound quality is decent, so the package is unlikely to offend casual listeners; and since the most familiar tunes are included, this disc may even come in handy as background music. But to get the most out of
Tchaikovsky's ballets -- in many ways, his finest achievements and deserving of a full hearing -- invest in the complete works and leave this sampler in the budget bin.