Santtu-Matias Rouvali, the Philharmonia’s Principal Conductor, seems to relish Tchaikovsky’s three ballets, programming selections from them in concerts that have all been recorded for posterity. On a 43-minute album, a Swan Lake selection (A/20) left Edward Seckerson feeling short-changed, ‘a little like enjoying the canapés and being denied the banquet’, after which a spick-and-span Nutcracker suite (22 minutes) was only released as a digital download. Now comes The Sleeping Beauty, a 34-minute selection curated by Rouvali (download only) which takes us not quite chronologically through the ballet.

The playing is big and bold, with plenty of bass-drum welly in the Carabosse elements in the Introduction, a percussive ending to the Rose Adagio that sounds positively martial, plus pomp and glitter aplenty in the Apotheosis, all vividly recorded.

Rouvali’s tempos are sometimes on the breathless side – his Garland Waltz would be a tough assignment for even the finest corps de ballet – and one senses him getting caught up in the sweep of Tchaikovsky’s most symphonic ballet score. But there is tenderness, too, notably in the intimate cello solo in Aurora’s variation for the Act 2 Vision Scene pas de deux, and although the Panorama scuds along to deliver Prince Désiré to the castle, the playing of the Philharmonia strings and harp is gossamer light. The animated woodwind-playing in ‘Puss-in-Boots and the White Cat’ is delicious.

Balletomanes will be frustrated to have three numbers from Act 3’s Grand pas de deux but not its glorious first number, which feels a perverse omission. It leaves me wondering who this selection is intended for other than Rouvali himself. Perhaps Signum intends to package the ballet selections together to finally allow ES his three-course meal?