Ballet Favorites

Ballet Favorites recycles excerpts from previously issued Kultur ballet discs as a sort of “greatest hits” compilation, even if the “hits” aren't always what one would expect. Predictably, Tchaikovsky is well represented by numbers from Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty, and one could hardly quarrel with the inclusion of numbers from Adam's Giselle and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. But two dances from La Fille Mal Gardée and another from Britten's The Prince of the Pagodas seem a bit of a stretch. Are these really “favorites”? And the complete Act I of Minkus's Don Quixote—even when so nicely done here by the American Ballet Theatre with leads Mikhail Baryshnikov and Cynthia Harvey—isn't an obvious choice. Still, the performances, otherwise fairly equally divided between the Kirov Ballet and the Royal Ballet, are on a high level, showcasing the work of some of their finest dancers (Galina Mezentseva, Darcey Bussell, Irina Kolpakova, Wayne Eagling, and Brian Shaw, among others) and choreographers (Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, and Peter Wright). And while the audiovisual qualities are understandably variable, the overall production generally looks and sounds excellent. Presented in Dolby Digital stereo, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)