Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 48 pages
- Published by: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers January 11, 1995
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1884822398
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1884822391
-
Book Dimensions:
7 x 6.2 x 0.4 inches
- Weighs: 7.5 ounces
Product Review
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky is indisputably one of the world's most popular classical composers, and his ballets--
Swan Lake, Op. 20;
Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66; and the
Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71--are among his most popular works. They can provide neophytes with a very accessible door into classical music, and this book and compact disc from the Black Dog Music Library offers a convenient way to open that door. The recording (there's a CD tucked inside the front cover) is an EMI reissue from 1959 and 1960 by Ephrem Kurtz and the Philharmonica Orchestra; it's not the most technologically up-to-date, but it's quite listenable and more than adequate to the purpose.
As is usual with releases from the Black Dog Music Library, this one contains what amounts to super-liner notes: several essays--on Tchaikovsky and his life, on these scores, and on ballet as a dance medium--by David Foil. Foil sometimes falls into inaccurate cliché ("As is usual with great artists, the dark side of Tchaikovsky's life animated his genius"; in fact, many great artists are perfectly normal--just look at J.S. Bach, Haydn, and Mendelssohn, to name three major composers at random), but he's usually sound enough. There are also blow-by-blow accounts of the recordings themselves, with an explanation of what's happening in each movement, down to the second timings. The book is handsomely illustrated with photographs of the
New York City Ballet; taken altogether, this is a well-priced and helpful package.
Product Description
The Black Dog Music Library presents P. Tchaikovsky's Ballet Suites.
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