Search - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Seiji Ozawa, Mikhail Pletnev :: Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake / The Nutcracker / The Sleeping Beauty (Complete Recordings) - Boston Symphony Orchestra / Seiji Ozawa / Russian National Orchestra / Mikhail Pletnev

Ozawa and Pletnev are bland and refined -- but the Nutcracke

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 12/23/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a frustrating box set of Tchaikovsky ballets. There's no arguing against the good recorded sound, which captures the elegance of the BSO and the refinement of the Russian Naitonal Orchestra. Both ensembles play very well, so there's no arguing about the pleasure of hearing such perfect execution. But Ozawa and Pletnev both view these scores as models of correctnoess and poise. Perhaps they view ballet that way, too, but absent more passion and real heart, all three performances become debilitating after a while -- all that poise drains away the music's life blood. However, for long stretches Ozawa's Nutcracker is vigorous and engrossing -- it's the best thing here and worth seeking out on the used markety by itself.



By a slight margin I prefer this box set to the corresponding one on EMI from Previn, but you are better off finding separate versions of each score."