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Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Op.20 |
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Artist:
Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre Valery Gergiev
Average Customer Rating:   
List Price: £22.99
Our Price: £16.75
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028947576693
Format: Box set
Label: Universal Classics
Manufacturer: Universal Classics
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Universal Classics
Release Date: 2007-10-15
Running Time: 106
Studio: Universal Classics |
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Disc 1:
| 1. Introduction: Andante - Allegro - Tempo 1 | | 2. Scene 1: Scène (Allegro) | | 3. Scene 1: Valse (Tempo di valse) | | 4. Scene 1: Scène (Allegro moderato) | | 5. Scene 1: Pas de trois - Intrada (Allegro moderato) | | 6. Scene 1: Pas de trois - Variation 1 (Allegro semplice) | | 7. Scene 1: Pas de trois - Variation 2 (Moderato) | | 8. Scene 1: Pas de trois - Variation 3 (Allegro) | | 9. Scene 1: Pas de trois - Coda (Allegro vivace) | | 10. Scene 1: Pas d'action (Andantino quasi moderato - Allegro) | | 11. Scene 1: Scène - Sujet | | 12. Scene 1: Danse des coupes (Polonaise: Tempo de polacca) | | 13. Scene 1: Finale (Andante) | | 14. Scene 2: Scène (Moderato) | | 15. Scene 2: Scène (Allegro moderato - Moderato - Allegro vivo) | | 16. Scene 2: Scène (Allegro - Moderato quasi andante) | | 17. Scene 2: Danses des cygnes 1. Valse | | 18. Scene 2: Pas d'action (Andante - Andante ma non troppo) | | 19. Scene 2: Danses des petits cygnes (Allegro moderato) | | 20. Scene 2: Danse générale (Tempo di valse) | | 21. Scene 2: Scène (Moderato assai) | | 22. Scene 2: Coda (Allegro vivace) | | 23. Scene 2: Scène finale (Moderato) |
Disc 2:
| 1. Scène: (Allegro giusto) | | 2. Danses du corps de ballet de des nains (Moderato asssai - Allegro vivo) | | 3. Scène: Sortie des invités et valse (Allegro -Tempo di valse) | | 4. Scène: (Allegro - Allegro giusto) | | 5. Danse espagnole (Allegro non troppo, Tempo di Bolero) | | 6. Danse napolitaine (Allegro moderato - Andantino quasi moderato - Presto) | | 7. Danse hongroise. Czardas (Moderato assai - Allegro moderato - Vivace) | | 8. Mazurka (Tempo di mazurka) | | 9. Pas de deux: Intrada (Tempo di valse) | | 10. Pas de deux: Variation 1 (Andante) | | 11. Pas de deux: Variation 2 (Moderato) (Interpolation 4) | | 12. Pas de deux: Variation 3 (Allegro moderato) (Interpolation 1) | | 13. Pas de deux: Coda (Allegro molto vivace) | | 14. Scène (Finale): (Allegro) | | 15. Entr'acte (Moderato) | | 16. Valse: Interpolation 2 (Tempo di valse) | | 17. Scène: Allegro agitato - Molto meno mosso - Allegro vivace | | 18. Scène finale (Andante) | | 19. Scène: Interpolation 3 (Allegro moderato) | | 20. Scène finale (cont.) (Allegro agitato - Moderato e maestoso |
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Needless Swan Lake, 2007-12-14
Although a Decca sticker on the box claims this is a new studio recording of Tchaikovsky's complete ballet, it's neither. It's the same live performance which also appeared on DVD and it's not the complete score either, since it's the Mariinsky Theatre version with the cuts, rearrangements of numbers, and interpolations with other Tchaikovsky music orchestrated by Riccardo Drigo for the 1895 staging of the ballet. Be that as it may, I fail to see why we should have the sound recording if the full thing with the movie is available, especially because the chosen tempi and approach can hardly be justified without the images. (And, incidentally, the double CD is more expensive than the DVD.)
Valery Gergiev is not a ballet conductor. Moreover, this was among his first attempts at "Swan Lake" and I can't help but thinking he would have been much better off with a real studio recording of the complete score (like he did with greater success for "The Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutcracker"), instead of this live performance which, taken out of its context, sounds even more bloodless and inert as it does on the DVD. As usual he brings out a lot of the orchestral details and colour of this wonderful music, helped by a stunningly dynamic recording from the Decca engineers, but the drama and theatricality is curiously missing. Surprisingly, the big orchestral numbers like the ouverture, the introduction and the finales of the various acts suffer most from Gergiev's underpowered conducting. Brass, percussion and timpani should ideally have been balanced more forwardly.
When listening through the complete recording one also realizes it falls apart in elegantly crafted moments, with some lovely solo's from the musicians of the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, but a sense of structure which holds it all together is absent. The famous White Swan pas de deux (pas d'action) reflects in this respect the whole recording: there is some exquisite playing by the solo violin, but the whole piece drags because of the tempo and doesn't stand repeated listening.
This is far from being the definitive recording of "Swan Lake". It doesn't even come close - for that rather look in the direction of Evgeny Svetlanov, Antal Dorati, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Ernest Ansermet, or even Pierre Monteux and the hard to find Anatole Fistoulari in abridged versions. If you really need to have the Mariinsky Theatre version of the ballet on CD, look for Viktor Fedotov and the Mariinsky Orchestra.
SWAN LAKE: THE 'OFFICIAL' VERSION AT LAST!!!, 2007-11-03
If, like me, you've despaired when landing yet another `manuscript' version of Tchaikovsky's magnificent score - lovely, but longwinded - then don't. A sticker on the front proclaims `Complete Score', but as we're going to see, that's not strictly true.
Finally, FINALLY, someone has had the sense to record the `official' version, as we hear/see Swan Lake live, on stage, complete with delicious interpolations: piano pieces orchestrated to create Odile's sparkling solo, that beguiling Swan Valse from the final act (`Valse Bluette'), and the romantic reconciliation theme for Odette and her Prince. Whole chunks have been moved around to create the version we know and love (famously the Act 1 'Pas de Deux', becomes the `Black Swan Pas de Deux' in Act 3, for example).
Favourites, such as the `Czardas', is well-judged. There are lots of cuts, but as most, if not all, the full-length versions out there, are the exhaustive accounts, it's not a problem. (Previn's rousing 'Scene Finale', for instance, has to be heard to be believed. I go cold every time I hear it). So why not have both?
I have spent *decades* trying to track down just such a recording as this (Gergiev: excellent. Well, he would be - he's conducted this very ballet for some of the finest dancers in the world). 'Til now, I've had to make do with tantalising excerpts (Bonynge), or crackly snippets of those enticing `missing bits' on old LP's. I even had my poor brother rig up my old tape deck to the vcr to record such a score from a ballet video(!) - yes, it was that long ago, and I was that desperate! When I saw the track listing for this particular recording, my eyes came out like marbles!
If anyone is acquainted with Mr Gergiev, give him a hug, please. And tell him "Bravo! You've made dance fans everywhere very happy!!"
**NB: Some list this recording as `live', but the sticker on the front shouts `studio recording'. Sounds great, by the way. The accompanying booklet is very informative. Great pictures, too. It's been was a long wait. But worth it.
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