With "The Nutcracker", Tchaikovsky gives us a stunning tour de force and shows us all just how richly talented he was when it came to musical composition; truly, his cup of talent indeed was overflowing! With his symphonies, he came up with maybe a handful of themes that he took and fully developed over the course of forty minutes or so. But here, with a ballet comprised of 24 'movements' he basically came up with about 24 great tunes and developed each for relatively brief periods of time ranging from under a minute to several minutes. And the gently rich intricate detail he put into each melody is just astounding! If you listen carefully to this great music without distraction as I just did you may hear what I am talking about (I had previously only listened to this CD set as background music). Wow, what a difference paying close attention made with this!

As for this particular performance by The Orchestra Of The Royal Opera House Covent Garden conducted by Mark Ermler I feel they did an outstanding job. Crisp, clean & lively with superb digitally recorded sound quality-in other words, they really hit the ball out of the park in every aspect!

Are there other great recordings of this ballet? I'm sure there are but I doubt that anyone will really top this; equal maybe, but I just don't see any room for improvement here.

Lastly, on disc two the final 9 tracks are a work titled "Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky" by Arensky and it fills out the disc well, fitting nicely with the ballet. Again, performed beautifully.

All the way through, an outstanding musical achievement that I heartily recommend.

Enjoy & God bless :-)

This is the full dance version of the ballet.Because I had only heard snippets and compilations of Nutcracker before laying out for this CD package I was really impressed upon first hearing by the grand scope of the ballet.How he then managed to wrap up the whole thing in so concise a package with such complete exploration of each single piece is completely beyond me.I need many other hearings of this work and another orchestra to hear before I can figure out how this one has interpreted the ballet. But if you are like me and have not listened to entire works as the composers have penned them, go for it.

This is Tchaikovsky's complete Nutcracker score, well-recorded and performed by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under the direction of Mark Ermler. First and foremost: If all you've heard of The Nutcracker is the suite, then don't wait another moment before experiencing the full score. Yes, it may be overplayed a bit, but it's undoubtedly a masterpiece, and while 100% of the suite can be heard in the complete version, much of the best music is missing from the suite.

This particular recording is fairly good. The Royal Opera orchestra may be a bit bright and ensemble a bit ragged here and there, but they play with energy and drive. The recording venue is very live, so there is plenty of reverberation to hide the rough patches, and Ermler's interpretation is clearly sympathetic, if obviously a beaten path that comes from orchestras and conductors sharing dozens of performances over the years. If I had to guess, I would say the venue was overly live, which is why there are frequent passages where the orchestra isn't a unified ensemble.

A nice bonus on this 2-disc set is Anton Arensky's "Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky," a beautiful piece for strings that was a thoughtful addition to the second disc, which otherwise might have been a little short.

Undoubtedly, the better recordings are the Royal Philharmonic under Vladimir Ashkenazy on the Decca label and the London Symphony Orchestra's dazzling reading under Andre Previn on Classics for Pleasure. Nonetheless, this is a fine peformance and very much worhwhile if you find it at a bargain price.

The Royal Opera House Covent Garden will never be mistaken for the Royal Philharmonic. With that bit of truth out of the way, this CD accomplishes everything it sets out to do. It presents The Tchaikovsky Nutcracker, in its entirety, with a nice addition of Arensky's Variation on Theme included on the latter part of Disc 2.

The orchestra tends to plods a bit in certain parts but overall it is bright and crisp and delivers an accurate portrayal of Tchaikovsky's fantasy ballet. This recording does not explode with the richness and depth of other similar recordings however we must all understand that not all ensembles can record in Royal Albert Hall or Southbank. In any event, this ballet is a true gem and Mark Ermler and the ROH Covent Garden Orchestra, under his conduction, do a fine job. This is a two CD double jewel case package with nice bonus material not available on other recordings, and for that reason alone, I wholly recommend it. Happy Holidays!