As recently as the April issue I was reviewing an excellent Naxos recording by the Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (Kosice) of the complete Sleeping Beauty ballet and I praised in detail the playing under Mogrelia, a conductor who obviously has an innate feeling for music of the ballet. But this new recording from Philips is splendid, too, and Valery Gergiev, the conductor of the Kirov Theatre Orchestra of St Petersburg is perhaps even more at home in this score. He secures splendidly alive and sympathetic playing from his orchestra and there is not a tired bar anywhere. Moreover, the Philips recording is full and sumptuous, with a rich theatrical atmosphere. It was made in the Maryinsky Theatre and the engineers have the full measure of the building's acoustics. Of course the Naxos sound was first-rate too, but one can again comment here that in Russia Tchaikovsky's big climaxes expand properly, the strings are full and natural and the woodwind colours glow. The effect is a shade more resonant with the Philips recording, but one never feels any loss of detail.
Gergiev is electrically dramatic when the music demands it, the opening of each of the three acts brings crisp vitality. Yet whenever the glorious theme of the Lilac Fairy reappears the graceful affection of the Russian playing is quite lovely, whether solo oboe or flute—as in No. 14, the ''Scene'' in Act 2, where the Fairy conjures up the image of the Princess for the melancholy Prince. The strings too are very tender here. Indeed the string playing is a constant pleasure and the expansive finale to the Prologue, again the Lilac Fairy theme, is most successful. Other woodwind solos are full of elegance (there is some really lovely clarinet playing in the Act 1 ''Pas de six'') and Gergiev matches his dramatic vitality with a delicate sense of fantasy. His gently rocking ''Panorama'' is even more subtle in its background rhythmic rocking than Mogrelia's, and the delightful Act 3 ''Pas de quatre''—where each of the Fairies appears in turn—is deliciously done. Indeed the whole of the Act 3 ''Divertissment'' is a joy (''Puss in-boots and the White Cat'' have great feline character), and rhythms are always sprightly. In short this is a splendid set, well documented (although the cueing of the excellent synopsis gives the name of each movement, and its number is not the same as the track number, which is confusing at first). So this new Sleeping Beauty can be given an unqualified recommendation on all counts but price. It costs nearly three times as much as the Naxos alternative and that thoroughly rewarding recording is by no means displaced.'