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Reviewing the latest Ansermet version of this superb ballet score, I remarked that there was little to choose between his version and that of Monteux, since both were wonderfully vivid, with just a few occasional rhythmic lapses. In this new recording conducted by Sir Eugene Goossens I am afraid...

Josef Suk, outstanding among Czechoslovakia's late romantic composers, was a pupil of Dvoilk, and married Dvoiik's daughter Otilia. His finest and most famous work is the noble Asrael Symphony (recorded on Supraphon LPV269-70), which he composed in his early thirties, as a memorial to Dvoak and...

I would place Curzon at the head of all the recorded exponents of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto (the only possible rival being Van Cliburn). Although not by nature a heavyweight pianist, Curzon throws himself into the work with might and main, and brings off, by and large, a big, broad,...

Milstein gives a masterly performance of this concerto: his virtuosity in the finale is absolutely breathtaking, not even yielding place to Heifetz; and in the Canzonetta, his beautifully intimate expressiveness is only surpassed by the exquisite playing of Ferras. The first movement is superbly...

No two-disc set of Swan Lake is complete, even from the Royal Ballet production's point of view. This one omits the Swan music at the end of the first act, the scene to which the hunting party enters in Act 2 and which precedes the entry of the Swan corps de ballet; it omits the beginning of the...

TCHAIKOVSKY. Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, "Pathetique". Vienna State Opera Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Golschmann. Top Rank Q BUY001 (12 in., 16s. 8d. plus 5s. 4d. P.T.).