Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty

In reissuing George Weldon's 1956 performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty as a double-disc package in the Classics for Pleasure series, EMI shows considerable pride in this groundbreaking recording, which was the first stereo version of the ballet. However, this reissue is inadequate by contemporary digital standards, and even in its 1988 ADD mastering, the sound is weak in many places. Fortissimo passages are generally all right, though not especially bright, bold, or resonant; anything ... Read More

In reissuing George Weldon's 1956 performance with the Philharmonia Orchestra of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty as a double-disc package in the Classics for Pleasure series, EMI shows considerable pride in this groundbreaking recording, which was the first stereo version of the ballet. However, this reissue is inadequate by contemporary digital standards, and even in its 1988 ADD mastering, the sound is weak in many places. Fortissimo passages are generally all right, though not especially bright, bold, or resonant; anything below mezzo forte seems muted and indistinct, and periodic volume adjustments are necessary to hear the finest details at pianissimo. Add to this problem the incompleteness of the ballet, which was trimmed by roughly a half hour to originally fit on two LPs, and this affordable twofer seems much less attractive. Since EMI has already reissued André Previn's exceptional 1974 recording of the complete ballet with the London Symphony Orchestra in a superior-sounding remastered edition,... Read Less